


twisting to the sun

by halosun



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Study, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Mutual Pining, Post-War, Slow Burn Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Zuko Needs a Hug, does not follow the comics, the search for zuko's mom, this is soft but also kind of sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 39,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25509616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halosun/pseuds/halosun
Summary: Five years after the end of the war, Katara is back in the Fire Nation on a diplomatic mission from her tribe. But after a strange and terrifying incident, she must once again help Zuko find closure with his family and his past.Or, the search for Zuko's mom does not go exactly to plan.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 112
Kudos: 175





	1. Chapter 1

It was late afternoon as the ship pulled into the harbor. Katara stood on the deck and inhaled deeply, savoring the scent of fire lilies and the feeling of a slight breeze on her skin. She could sense water all around her, from the sea slowly rocking beneath her feet, to the lakes surrounding the capital city, to the tiny droplets of water that hung in the air, making the crew members sweat as they brought the ship into port. 

It had been nearly five years since she last stepped foot in the Fire Nation. 

After the war, Katara went back to the South Pole with Sokka and her father but did not stay there for long. Aang invited her to travel with him as he performed his Avatar duties and she agreed, glad to have the chance to see more of the world and have adventures with a boyfriend who loved her. 

But after two years of constant traveling, it was clear that their destinies were just too different. Katara craved stability, a purpose in life beyond being the Avatar’s girlfriend, while Aang was restless, consumed with his duty to the world and the burden of being the last airbender.

After their breakup, Katara returned to the South Pole to help with the rebuilding efforts and to help Master Pakku train a new batch of waterbending students. Almost without noticing, three more years passed as her students learned and grew and the Southern Water Tribe grew along with them.

Zuko wrote to her often, as did all of their other friends. He was so busy being Fire Lord that they had only seen each other a handful of times after the war ended, so sending letters to each other was the main way they stayed in touch. But this past year his letters came less and less often until they finally stopped altogether—until three weeks ago. 

She had come home from a waterbending class that day surprised to find a messenger hawk sitting on her kitchen table, carrying a letter with his handwriting. But this letter was much more formal than the ones he normally sent her. She had read it so many times on the journey over that she practically had it memorized.

_Katara,_

_As you may already know, two weeks from now the Fire Nation will host diplomats from the Earth Kingdom and both Water Tribes to discuss the yearly renewal of various trade contracts. I had received confirmation from your father that your ambassador Panuk left the South Pole several weeks ago for the Fire Nation, but he has yet to show up._

_I’ve sent men out into the southern seas to look for him, but in the meantime, we need someone to represent the Southern Water Tribe at the upcoming meeting. Your father had mentioned that you might be interested. If so, send a reply back with this messenger hawk and I’ll have a ship come get you in a few days._

_Fire Lord Zuko_

It really was a very strange letter. Panuk had been the Southern Water Tribe’s ambassador to the Fire Nation since the end of the war. Katara had been interested in the position herself, but most of the tribe had decided that she was too young, and in any case, she couldn’t have done the job while she was traveling with Aang. Her father recommending her to Zuko was high praise, and she was glad Zuko had agreed, but the situation still worried her. Panuk was one of the tribe’s best warriors, so it was troubling that he was missing. But it also might be her only chance to represent her tribe, and Katara was determined to take it.

As they came closer to the shore, Katara noticed a figure on the dock waving wildly. The crewmen docked the ship, and Katara recognized a grinning General Iroh, looking positively delighted to see her as she rushed down the plank to greet him.

“Miss Katara,” he said warmly with a low bow. “It is so good to see you again.”

“General Iroh!” Katara smiled and responded with a bow of her own. "It’s been so long, almost…what four years now, I think?”

“Please, my dear, as I’ve said before, call me Uncle. I am a simple tea shop owner now, not a Fire Nation general. And yes, four years since our last little reunion in Ba Sing Se. Too long! You have been keeping busy, I hope?

She nodded. “My waterbending students keep me on my toes.”

Iron smiled and began to lead the way through the Royal Plaza. It looked much more lively than it did the last time Katara was here, five years ago on the Day of Black Sun. Instead of a military outpost, it looked much more like an outdoor marketplace. The harbor was filled with ships from all the different nations, and the plaza was lined with numerous stands of fishermen, merchants, and other vendors hawking their wares.

Iroh smiled at her awestruck expression as they settled into a trolley that would take them up the volcano directly to the palace. “It looks different than you remember it, doesn’t it?” he said. “My nephew has made a great many changes in the first few years of his reign.”

Katara nodded in agreement. “How is Zuko?” she asked him, suddenly curious why he hadn’t been at the harbor to greet her as well.

To her surprise, Iroh’s face fell somewhat. “He’s…stressed,” he said hesitantly.

“Well, that’s not unexpected. Zuko’s been stressed the entire time I’ve known him,” Katara laughed.

Iron inclined his head. “True, but I’m worried about him nonetheless. Ever since Mai left…”

“What?” Katara said suddenly. “Mai left? They broke up?”

Iron was looking at her curiously. “He didn’t tell you?”

“No…” Katara trailed off. She stared out the window at the rolling green peaks of the dormant volcano. She had wondered why Zuko had been more inconsistent with his letters this past year, but she never would have guessed that something like this had happened. She wondered why he hadn’t wanted to tell her.

“This past year has been difficult for everyone,” Iroh said by way of explanation. “Which is why I’m taking a little break from my tea shop. My nephew has a lot on his plate, and this situation with the missing Water Tribe ambassador…it’s all very strange.”

Katara frowned. “I agree, it’s not like Panuk to just disappear. I hope he’s okay.”

They had finally reached the palace, and the trolley came to a shuddering halt only a few yards away from the huge red and gold front gate. Iroh got out first and held out a hand to help Katara down. He led her through the gate and into the palace, nodding to the guards as they went by, then down a series of hallways, stopping in front a dark wooden door carved with an intricate design of two dragons circling each other.

“This is the Fire Lord’s study,” he told her. “He should be just inside.” He hesitated for a second. “I would be careful these next few weeks, Miss Katara. The Fire Nation court is much better than it was five years ago, but it is still a den of prickle snakes. I don’t want to see you get bitten.”

And with a final smile and bow, he left Katara alone.

Her heart pounded in her chest. It had been three years since she last saw Zuko, and even longer since they had spoken anything more than a few passing words of greeting to each other. How would he react when he saw her? Had he really changed so much that all that she could expect from him now were cold, impersonal words like in his last letter? The thought made her desperately sad. But still, she had a job to do. She was a master waterbender here to represent her tribe, and no amount of nerves was going to stop her from doing that.

She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” a voice said, and she opened it.

Zuko was standing behind his desk wearing long black ceremonial robes that made him look older than his actual age of twenty-one. His hair was done up in the traditional topknot, which accentuated his high cheekbones and put his red scar in stark contrast against his pale face. Next to him stood a plain-looking man with round glasses and a long ponytail. He had a pile of reports in his arms and was staring at her curiously as she walked into the room.

“Lady Katara,” Zuko said, his expression neutral. “I apologize for not being able to meet you at the docks earlier, I was in a meeting with my councilors. I trust your journey went well?”

 _So formal_ , Katara thought with a sense of dread. This was a far cry from the awkward angsty teenager she remembered. She would have teased him about it if she weren’t so worried about his reaction, especially with the man standing right next to him.

“Fire Lord Zuko,” she said with a low bow. “It did, thank you. It’s good to be back in the Fire Nation.”

Zuko nodded. “My advisor, Reo,” he said, gesturing to the man next to him.

Reo bowed respectfully to her. “Lady Katara. My lord, shall we continue this discussion at the council meeting tomorrow?”

“Yes, that’s fine. Have the new expense reports sent to me by the end of the day.”

Reo bowed one more time than left quietly, letting the door swing shut behind him with a click.

As soon as they were alone, Zuko’s shoulders slumped and he let out an audible sigh.

“Sorry about that,” he muttered as he stepped around his desk to join her. “Reo always wants to talk about something or another after our council meetings, I couldn’t get away. Anyways…” He rubbed the back of his neck, a familiar awkward gesture that made Katara smile with relief. “Um…It’s good to see you?”

“There’s the Zuko I remember,” she said brightly and punched him lightly on the shoulder.

“Ow!” Zuko glared at her, though his unscarred cheek was pink as he blushed at her words. “You’ve been spending too much time with Toph obviously.”

“Yeah, she came to visit a few months ago for our spring festival. Sokka even got Suki to come too!”

He nodded, and Katara was quick to notice a small hint of jealousy in his eye, though he quickly tried to hide it. She wondered if he ever regretted agreeing to take the throne. All of their other friends were free to travel whenever and wherever they wanted, but Zuko was stuck in the Fire Nation, only leaving for the yearly Council of Four Nations meeting or an occasional official visit. No wonder he used to write to her so much. He was lonely.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said quietly. “Things have been…strange.”

“Yes, your uncle told me,” Katara said. “I was worried when I didn’t hear from you for such a long time, and then to get that cryptic letter you sent me...what’s going on?”

Zuko sighed. “I wish I could tell you. But we don’t have to talk about this now. I told Reo that you’re going to sit in on our council meeting tomorrow morning so we can fill you in on what’s been happening.”

“Alright…” Katara was reluctant to change the subject, but seeing how tired he looked and remembering what Iroh had said to her earlier, she decided not to press him.

“How are your waterbending students coming along?” he asked after a slightly awkward pause.

Katara smiled broadly. “They’re doing so well! But I’ll be glad to leave them with Master Pakku for the next few weeks. Some of the younger students can be a real handful.”

Zuko smirked. “I thought that was just waterbenders in general.”

“Watch it, _jerk_ bender, or I’ll punch you again,” Katara warned. “Honestly though, I needed a change of scenery. I’ve been surrounded by ice for almost three years; I missed seeing trees and flowers.”

“Do you want to go out to the garden?” Zuko asked. “It’s nearly sunset, and the tiger lilies should be blooming this time of year.”

Katara grinned. “I’d love that.”

As he led her out of the office and down a series of corridors to the garden, she couldn’t help but furtively stare at him. Five years of being Fire Lord and he was still as handsome as ever, she thought with a blush, though his face was definitely thinner and it looked as though he hadn’t been getting enough sleep. His expression, when not talking to her at least, seemed grim, though she wasn’t sure if that was just a regular Zuko trait or something else. She could count the number of times she had seen him actually smile on one hand.

“Zuko…” she asked tentatively. “Are you doing okay? Your uncle seemed worried earlier.”

Zuko sighed. “My uncle is always worried about me,” he said. “He thinks I need to drink more jasmine tea.”

Katara looked at him disbelievingly and he shrugged. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told him: I’m fine. Look, we’re here.”

He pulled aside a screen door and gestured for Katara to walk out into the courtyard. The sun was setting over the mountains beyond the palace, bathing the whole garden in a soft golden light. There were a few clusters of delicately pruned trees, rows and rows of colorful flowers, and as promised, an entire bed full of bright orange tiger lilies. But best of all was a little pond in the center of the courtyard where a family of turtleducks swam in circles, disrupting the silvery surface of the water with their movements.

“It’s beautiful,” Katara said, her eyes trying to drink in as much as possible.

Zuko came to stand beside her. “This was my mother’s favorite garden,” he said softly. “She used to take Azula and me here to feed the turtleducks.” It reminds me of her, was his unspoken amendment.

Katara stared at him for a second, trying to decipher his emotions, but the expression on his face was unreadable. “Well then,” she said slowly. “Why don’t we go say hello?” She walked over and sat right on the edge of the pond. After a beat, Zuko followed her.

He sat down only a few feet away from her and was quiet for a long time. He seemed content to just watch her as she dabbled her hand in the water, laughing as the baby turtleducks came to peck at her fingers, searching for food. His eyes were soft as he looked at her, the corners of his mouth turned up into almost a half smile.

After a few minutes of this, Katara wiped her hand on the grass beside her and sat back on her knees, turning to face him fully. A question had occurred to her, but she wasn’t sure how he would react if she asked it.

“Zuko…” she asked tentatively, “Have you had any news about your mother?”

After their confrontation with Yon Rha, he had told her what Ozai had said to him during the Day of Black Sun. She knew that he had wanted to search for his mother once the war was over, and she, maybe out of gratitude for helping her find her own mother’s killer, had offered to go with him. But in five years, he had never taken her up on her offer.

Zuko suddenly looked even more tired than he already did. “She’s dead,” he said flatly. “Ozai lied.”

Katara’s heart sank, but she only got up and moved so that she was sitting directly beside him facing his unscarred cheek. “How do you know?”

“Because it took a full year for him to even admit what he told me that day was true, and another few months after that to tell me what he did. After she left, he sent an assassin after her to make sure that she would never try to contact me or Azula ever again. She has to be dead, otherwise why hasn’t she tried to see me any time in the past five years? Ozai is locked up. She has to know that I’d pardon her if she ever wanted to come back. I put up posters saying just that in every Fire Nation city from here to the Earth Kingdom.”

He looked so distressed as he said this that Katara wanted nothing more than to reach out and cover his hand with hers. But it had been so long that she no longer knew if he would let her.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “But Zuko, why didn’t you tell me?”

He shrugged. “I only found out about a year and a half after the war ended. You were still traveling with Aang. I didn’t know how to reach you.”

“Oh,” Katara said quietly. She suddenly felt very guilty. She tried to picture Zuko all alone in the palace trying to come to terms with the death of his mother all over again after Ozai had so cruelly given him false hope. 

As if reading her thoughts, Zuko shook his head. “Don’t worry about it,” he said quietly. “I had Mai with me, at least for a while.”

“Your uncle said that you broke up.”

Zuko sighed. “Did he? Is there anything about my life that he didn’t tell you?” he grumbled.

But Katara didn't take the bait. “What happened?” she asked.

Zuko shrugged. “We grew apart.” He was quiet for a long while after that and Katara almost thought he wouldn’t say anything else, but then suddenly he continued. 

“To be honest, our old relationship was practically built off of how much we both hated the world. But when your new destiny is all about trying to _improve_ the world, complaining about how awful everything is just doesn’t have the same appeal. Also…I don’t think Mai was ever happy at court. Not really, though she did try to hide it for my sake.”

Katara nodded. It made sense. Mai, for all of her natural elegance, had always seemed restless to Katara the couple of times she had seen her after the war. Everyone had assumed that she would eventually become the new Fire Lady. She wondered if she had ever felt crushed under the weight of people’s expectations. As the Avatar’s ex-girlfriend, she knew the feeling.

“I’m sorry,” she said simply. “I know how much you cared about her.”

Zuko shrugged again. “I did. But it’s been almost a year. We’ve both moved on.”

“A year?” Katara teased. “What’s your excuse for not telling me this time? I’ve had a permanent address at the South Pole for the last three years!”

Zuko frowned. “I didn’t want to bother you with my problems,” he said. “Besides, you didn’t tell me everything that happened in your life either. I had to hear about your breakup with Aang from Sokka of all people! Why didn’t you tell me about that?”

“I…” she stopped and smiled wryly. “I guess I didn’t want to bother you with my problems either.”

“Well then.”

Katara sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She still wore it down in a similar style to the way she had at the end of the war. She noticed Zuko’s eyes track the movement than quickly flit away as if he were embarrassed. “We can’t keep doing this,” she said. “We’re friends, Zuko. We’re supposed to bother each other with our problems.” She bumped her shoulder against his. “Isn’t that the whole reason why you invited me here?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he gazed into the water, his expression unreadable.

“What if I said I invited you for more selfish reasons?”

Katara’s heart fluttered. “And what would those be?”

She saw the corner of his mouth turn up. “I missed you.”

The warmth of his voice made her smile. “Well, then,” she said. “I would say that I missed you too.”

He looked up at her, answering her smile with a bashful grin of his own. Her heart fluttered again, and she found herself wishing that he would smile like that more often. It made him look younger, more carefree.

“I’m glad you’re here,” he said for the second time that day.

This time, Katara didn’t hesitate to lay her hand on his and give it a comforting squeeze.

“Me too,” she said softly.

They both turned their gazes back to the pond and watched the turtleduck babies chase after each other in circles as the mother turtleduck looked on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So now we have the introduction of most of the major plot points of this story: a missing Water Tribe ambassador, the fate of Zuko's mom (which is not all that it appears), and lots of good old fashioned pining. Azula will probably be introduced in the next chapter, as she also plays a pretty big part in this story.
> 
> I have the whole basic plot mapped out already, but I still need to outline and write individual chapters, so depending on my levels of motivation and creativity, expect updates every two weeks or so.
> 
> Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

Katara swept out of the council meeting room, the door shutting behind her with a loud bang.

_What a waste of time_ , she thought.

She had been hoping that Zuko and his advisors would have some actual information about the whereabouts of Ambassador Panuk, but apparently, they knew just as much as she did, which was basically nothing. True to his word, Zuko had sent out the Fire Nation Navy to look for Panuk’s ship, but after two weeks of searching, they hadn't found a single trace of it, and Zuko’s advisor Reo had just received a messenger hawk saying that the fleet had since turned around to head back to the capital.

Frustrated, and worried about her fellow tribe member, Katara did not receive the news particularly well. She only grumbled when Zuko asked her after the meeting if she wanted to get dinner later that night, and though he shot her a concerned look, Reo called him over before he could say anything else to her.

Now, standing outside the meeting room and facing the long palace hallway, Katara tried to decide how she should spend the rest of the day. The first trade meeting with the Northern Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom representatives wasn’t until tomorrow, and with Zuko busy all day with Fire Nation duties, she was basically on her own.

She wandered through the hallways until she found herself in the Royal Portrait Gallery, the faces of previous Fire Lords staring down at her. It was meant to be intimidating, and Katara wondered what it was like for Zuko to rule in the shadow of these powerful past leaders. His portrait hadn’t been painted yet, so the latest one displayed was of his father. 

Katara came to a stop in front of Ozai’s portrait, curious. She had never met the man (and had no desire to) but she couldn’t help but search the painting for similarities to Zuko’s face, even though she felt guilty for doing so. They had the same nose, she realized, and the same high cheekbones, but that was where the resemblance ended. Even at Zuko’s angriest, he had never looked as cold or as cruel as the man pictured in front of her. 

The sound of someone whistling made her spin around, and she came face to face with Iroh, walking through the hall with a Pai Sho board under his arm.

“Miss Katara!” he called and went over to her. “What a pleasant surprise.”

“General Iroh.”

Iroh tutted. “What did I say about calling me ‘General’?” he teased.

Katara smiled. “With all due respect, General Iroh, I’ll stop calling you ‘General’ when you stop calling me ‘Miss Katara’."

Iroh laughed heartily. “True enough. Where are you off to this fine morning? I hope you haven’t been spending it staring at these dusty old portraits.”

“No, I was just exploring some more of the palace. What about you?” she asked, gesturing to his Pai Sho board.

“Me?” Iroh said innocently. “I’m just going to go play a little game of Pai Sho with my niece.”

“With Azula?”

Iroh nodded. “It’s good for her to have a competitive outlet that isn’t harmful or destructive. And…” his face became somewhat more serious. “It keeps her grounded in reality, which I’m told has been slipping again somewhat lately.”

Katara frowned. Her feelings towards Azula were…complicated, to say the least. Aang and Zuko had both nearly died because of her lightning— Katara hated her for that. But another, smaller part of her almost felt sorry for her. In many ways, she and Azula were so similar. They were the same age, both younger sisters with an older brother, and both prodigies of their element. And Katara was directly responsible for her imprisonment. She still had nightmares about that night, the blind terror of fighting for her life as Zuko twitched and groaned on the cobblestones, and the sound of Azula’s horrible, broken wails as she struggled against her chains.

Iroh was looking at her strangely. She realized that she must have been staring off into space for quite some time.

“Would you like to come with me?” he asked.

“What?” Katara looked at him, a little startled.

“Closure is a funny thing, my dear,” Iroh said kindly. “It may help.”

Surprising herself, Katara nodded. “Alright. I’ll come.”

Iroh led her out of the palace and across the royal courtyard to a small stone house with a red roof that was heavily guarded by Fire Nation soldiers. “My nephew didn’t want to put her in a prison cell,” Iroh explained. “Which I think was the right choice, given her mental state. Instead, she is essentially on house arrest with a team of doctors to look after her.”

“How do they keep her from firebending?” Katara asked.

Iroh frowned. “An injection that blocks her chi. It is unpleasant but better than the alternative.”

They walked up the front steps and Iroh knocked on the door. A man wearing a white doctor’s robe opened it.

“General Iroh,” the doctor said. “Good to see you again.”

“You as well, Hiroshi. This is Lady Katara of the Southern Water Tribe,” he said, gesturing to Katara. “She’s a…friend of Azula’s.”

Katara let out a short laugh which she quickly turned into a cough as the doctor stared at her.

“Pleased to meet you Lady Katara,” he said with a polite bow. “If you both will follow me…”

He led them through the entranceway and down a narrow hallway, coming to a stop in front of a simple wooden door. He knocked once and opened it.

“Azula,” the doctor called into the room. “You have visitors.”

“Visitors? Send them away. I don’t want to see them,” a cold, familiar voice called out. Katara shivered.

Iroh glanced at her, but she only nodded at him and, steeling herself, followed him into the room.

It was nicer than Katara expected. There was a bed in the corner, an armchair, and a small desk. The walls were mostly bare, except for a print of red fire lilies that hung over the bed. Azula stood by the single window, staring out into the city. She was thinner, Katara realized, and her hair was cut into a short bob instead of her old topknot with the two loose strands of hair framing her face. It made her look younger, less severe.

“Azula,” Iroh said in a soft chastising voice. “Did you forget about our Pai Sho game?”

She turned to face them. “No,” she said defensively. “But don’t expect to beat me this time, Uncle. I’ve been practicing.” Her eyes narrowed as they fell on Katara. “What’s _she_ doing here?”

Katara crossed her arms. “I came to see how you were doing.”

Azula scowled and turned away from them back to the window. “Why do you care?” she said. “You’re the one who put me here in the first place.”

Katara didn’t have an answer to that, but she was saved by Iroh, who turned to the doctor with a frown. “What happened to her mirror?” he asked him. “There used to be one hanging over her desk.”

The doctor sighed. “She broke it,” he told them. “That was the second mirror she’s broken in less than a month. We thought it best not to give her another one.”

“Why did you break your mirror, Azula?” Iroh asked her patiently.

Azula scowled. “I kept seeing _her_ ,” she muttered. 

_Her mother?_ Katara mouthed to Iroh, who nodded, his expression grim.

“Enough small talk," Azula said, bringing their attention back to her. Her face was suddenly gleeful. “It is time to meet your doom, Uncle.”

Iroh smiled and pulled another chair over to the desk so he could set up the Pai Sho board. The doctor bowed and left the room, promising to be right down the hall if they needed him. Katara still hovered awkwardly by the door.

“Are you staying or going, water peasant?” Azula said. “Don’t just stand there, make yourself useful.”

“Azula…” Iroh said warningly, but Katara only smiled. “I’ll stay and watch,” she told her. “I don’t know how to play Pai Sho but I bet I can beat you at Four Elements.”

Azula sniffed. “I’d like to see you try.”

Katara watched her closely as she and Iroh began to play. She seemed much more stable than the last time Katara had seen her, but now and then there was a moment where her eyes would glaze over and her face would contort into a snarl, almost like she was experiencing something horrible that no one else could see. Whenever this happened though, Iroh seemed to bring her back to reality with a soft word or two. 

They were fairly well matched as players, but Iroh was still a Grand Lotus, and eventually, he won the game with a clever move. Azula sat back in her chair with a scowl.

“You are getting better, my niece,” Iroh told her, “but you are still failing to see the bigger picture. Remember, sometimes you may need to sacrifice one of your own pieces in order to win the game.”

Katara almost expected Azula to lash out and overturn the whole board in frustration, but to her surprise, the princess only sat up with a determined glint in her eye.

“Show me,” she demanded, and Iroh smiled and began to demonstrate what moves she could have made to win the game.

An hour, and two more matches of Pai Sho later, Katara and Iroh finally got up to leave. Azula seemed in a slightly better mood, though Katara noticed that as they left she returned to staring out her window with that same pained expression as before.

“She seems…better,” she remarked quietly to Iroh as they walked out of the house and back across the courtyard to the palace.

Iroh inclined his head. “In many ways, she is,” he said quietly. “Though she still has much work to do. It’s been hard for her to find a new purpose in life beyond trying to please her father. She has been…confused for a very long time. It has taken her nearly five years to let go of her paranoia, so it worries me to hear that she is hallucinating her mother again. She hasn’t done so since her imprisonment at the end of the war.”

“Does she…” Katara paused. “Does she feel regret for what she’s done?”

“That, I am not sure,” Iroh said. “I have only been visiting her regularly for the past few months, and though I have seen some improvement, she does not like to talk about the past.”

They went back inside the palace and came to a stop just inside the main entranceway. “Now,” Iroh said, clapping his hands. “I must leave you. I have a meeting with the royal cook to talk about his tea preparation. No one knows how to make a good cup of tea anymore," he lamented with a sigh. "I will see you at dinner, Miss Katara.”

And with that, he gave a short bow and turned to go, leaving Katara alone with her whirling thoughts.

The next morning was the trade meeting.

Katara mentally went over her tribe’s proposal for about the hundredth time as she got dressed. Her father had given her the freedom to negotiate if need be, as long as she kept the tribe’s best interests in mind, but hopefully, their proposal would be accepted and she wouldn’t need to do so.

Just as she finished fixing her hair loops, there was a knock on the door. She opened it to find a very tired looking Zuko, who gave her a tight smile in greeting.

“You look terrible,” she told him, and he glared at her.

“I was up late last night reading reports,” he told her. “You ready?” Katara nodded.

He led them through the hallways to the main council meeting room. 

“The Northern Water Tribe has also sent a new ambassador,” he warned her right before they went inside. “which I was not aware of until he arrived this morning.” He smiled wryly. “You may recognize him.”

He opened the door and Katara found herself face to face with a man and a woman dressed in green, who she assumed were the two Earth Kingdom ambassadors, and Hahn, the former betrothed of Princess Yue and, in Sokka’s words, a “self-absorbed weasel.”

Hahn scowled as he laid eyes on her. “What,” he grumbled, “is _she_ doing here?”

“Ambassador Hahn, I believe you already know Katara of the Southern Water Tribe,” Zuko said. “Lady Katara, the ambassadors Wei and Hei-Kyung,” he said, gesturing to the Earth Kingdom dignitaries, who both bowed respectfully to her. “Katara is here to represent her tribe as acting ambassador this year in the place of Ambassador Panuk.”

“Women,” Hahn grounded out behind clenched teeth. “Should not involved in politics.”

Katara opened her mouth to argue, but before she could, Hei-Kyung interrupted him. “And what does that make me, Ambassador Hahn?” she asked, raising a painted eyebrow.

Hahn reddened. “You’re from the Earth Kingdom,” he told her. "That’s different. Women in the Water Tribe are not permitted to get involved in our governing affairs.”

“Well, apparently the Southern Water Tribe thinks differently,” Katara said cooly. 

Hahn muttered something about the Southern Water Tribe being a bunch of backwater savages who didn’t know any better.

Zuko, perhaps sensing trouble, hastily cleared his throat. “Shall we begin?” he asked.

They all took their seats, Hahn still glaring at Katara.

“Thank you all for being here today,” Zuko said, adopting his best authoritative Fire Lord voice. “We have much to discuss regarding the trade between our nations and I think it’s in our best interest if we dive right into the proposals. Lady Katara, would you like to go first?”

Katara nodded. She stood up and began to deliver her proposal. The South Water Tribe had grown quickly since the end of the war, and now they had many more resources to trade with other nations. The proposal was simple. They would increase their supply of lamp oil, textiles, and whalebone to the Fire Nation in exchange for the first pick of new technologies that would help with the rebuilding and development of the South Pole.

Zuko and the other ambassadors listened to her attentively. When she had finished, Hahn leaned forward with an unpleasant look in his eye.

“Thank you for that informative report _Ambassador_ Katara,” he smirked. “But the Northern Water Tribe also provides the Fire Nation with many of those same resources. You shouldn’t get the first pick of the Fire Nation’s new technologies just because you and the Fire Lord are _old friends_.” He glanced at Zuko pointedly. “It seems an awful lot like favoritism to me.”

Katara blushed at his implication but refused to back down. “The Southern Water Tribe is still rebuilding from the war,” she said coldly. “We need those new technologies to help us do so.”

Hahn scoffed. “I’m not sure there’s much _to_ rebuild in the South Pole if you ask me. And besides, we were attacked too! We’re still rebuilding from the Siege of the North, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“You mean the battle that you fought in for thirty seconds before getting tossed overboard a Fire Nation ship in seventy-year-old armor?” Katara said. “Don’t worry. I remember.”

It may have been her imagination, but she could have sworn she saw Zuko’s mouth twitch as if he were trying to hide a smile. 

“Lady Katara, Ambassador Hahn, please,” he said. “I’m afraid he’s partly right,” he told her. “The North Pole does provide the Fire Nation with many of the same resources as the South. You may need to think of another solution.”

“Fine,” Katara snapped. She frowned, trying to think what her father would want her to do in this situation. Having the first pick of new Fire Nation technology wasn't their top priority as long as they still had access to it eventually. The real problem was that many southern Earth Kingdom cities were now dividing their trade quotas between the northern and southern tribes ever since the North Pole had opened back up to outsiders, forcing the South Pole to trade more with the Fire Nation instead. What they really needed was unlimited access to resources like wood and wool textiles from the Earth Kingdom. And suddenly, an idea came to her.

“Ambassador Hahn,” she called, looking up with a sugary-sweet smile. “I’d like to propose a compromise.”

Hahn frowned. “A compromise?”

Katara nodded. “The Northern Water Tribe will get priority to trade for Fire Nation technology if they agree to restrict their trading activities with the Earth Kingdom to cities only above Chameleon Bay. With your permission,” she nodded at the two Earth Kingdom ambassadors, “The Southern Water Tribe will enter into an exclusive trade agreement with the southern part of the Earth Kingdom. There was a de-facto arrangement already in place before the end of the war, but now that the South Pole has much more to offer, I propose that it is time to make it official.”

Hei-Kyung and Wei glanced at each other. “I don’t see a problem with that,” Hei-Kyung said slowly. “As long as the Northern Water Tribe agrees, we have a deal.”

Hahn frowned. He appeared to be thinking intently. “We’ll still have access to Ba Sing Se though, right?” he asked.

“Yes.” But what Katara didn’t tell him was that even though the land south of Chameleon Bay was made up of mostly smaller towns and villages, it also included Omashu, the second largest trading city in the Earth Kingdom.

“Well, that’s all that really matters, I guess. We have a deal,” he agreed.

Zuko looked up, surprised, but thankfully decided not to comment on it any further. “Excellent. Shall we move on? Next order of business, fishing contracts…”

Several hours later, they decided to call it a day. Katara thought she had done surprisingly well for her first foray into politics, and apparently, Ambassador Hei-Kyung agreed, as she gave Katara a small encouraging smile as she followed Ambassador Wei out of the meeting room.

After dinner that night Zuko agreed to show Katara more of the palace. It was a warm, clear night, so they decided to take a walk on one of the many long balconies that wrapped around the palace. Several other people had obviously had the same idea, so they were often stopped by a court member or a noble and his wife looking to pay their respects to the Fire Lord. Zuko was very gracious with all of them, greeting them politely and asking questions about their families which they eagerly answered. It was clear that, for the most part, he was very well-liked and respected by his subjects.

After this had happened several times, Katara smiled at him, shaking her head in disbelief.

“What?” Zuko asked her.

“Nothing,” she said. “It’s just…you’ve changed so much, Zuko. It’s hard to imagine you now as the angry prince who chased us halfway around the world.”

Zuko raised his eyebrow. “Would you rather I go back to doing that?” he teased.

Katara laughed. “No, but it’s taken me some time to get used to it. You used to be so easy to read. Now, half the time I don’t even know what you’re really thinking.”

“I had to learn how to hide my emotions pretty quickly when I became Fire Lord,” Zuko explained. “I didn’t realize I was still doing it with you though, I’m sorry.”

Katara waved off his apology. “It’s fine. I understand why you have to. Honestly, I should take a page out of your book. I wanted to waterwhip Hahn so badly this morning, but that probably wouldn’t have turned out well for any of us.”

Zuko smirked. “You were incredible,” he told her. “I always thought you would be. Chief Arnook’s going to be so angry when he realizes that Hahn basically ceded all rights to trade with Omashu to the South Pole.”

“He probably forgot all about it,” Katara said with a laugh. “Imagine, an ambassador who doesn’t even know basic geography. I wonder what strings his family had to pull to get him the job.”

“You should write to Sokka,” Zuko told her. “I bet he’d love to hear how his sister took down his arch-nemesis.”

They stopped walking for a minute, pausing at a small overlook that looked out onto the city below. Night had fallen, and fireflies winked and flashed in the distance as the guards in the courtyard lit the torches on either side of the palace gates.

“Speaking of sisters,” Katara said slowly. “I went to see Azula yesterday.”

Zuko frowned at her. “Why?” he asked, a bit harshly.

Katara raised her eyebrows at his change in tone. “I don’t know. I felt a little sorry for her I guess, being locked up in that room for nearly five years.”

Zuko stared at her. “She tried to kill you,” he said slowly.

Katara glared at him. “I know. Believe me, Zuko, I remember.”

He sighed and put a hand on his chest, over his lightning scar. “I know,” he said, “I’m sorry. I was just…” An emotion flickered across his face, but he quickly hid it as he turned away from her to look out into the city. “I couldn’t face her for an entire year after that night. It was just too painful. She’s better now, but it’s taken her a long time get that way.”

“Has she apologized to you?”

Zuko let out a humorless laugh. “No. And I don’t know if she ever will. But she…tolerates me now. Before, all she used to do was scream at me whenever I came to see her.”

“She does seem better,” Katara said slowly, “but her doctor said that she was hallucinating her mother again.”

Zuko sighed. “I know. I’m worried about her. She’s done so many horrible things, I don’t know why I should even care, but…”

“…but she’s still your sister,” Katara finished for him.

He nodded. “Does that make me a bad Fire Lord?” he wondered aloud.

“No,” Katara said firmly. “I don’t know what the right answer here is, Zuko, but I do know that caring about your sister does not make you a bad Fire Lord.” She paused. “In fact, I actually think you’re a pretty good one. I know you’ve had a rough few years, but considering all the obstacles you’ve had to deal with, I think you’re doing an amazing job.

Zuko ducked his head. “Thanks,” he muttered, and Katara could tell that he was a little embarrassed by her praise.

“You know,” he said after a short pause, “there's supposed to be a state dinner at the end of the week to celebrate the first round of successful trade negotiations.” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “The Fire Lord is traditionally supposed to bring a guest of honor, and normally I would just ask Mai or Uncle, but this time I was wondering if instead…that is…would you like to come with me?”

Katara couldn’t help but smile at his nervous stammering. “I’d love to, Zuko, but won’t that just make people talk?” She blushed a deep red. “Hahn already alluded to you giving me “favoritism” earlier today.”

“Let them talk,” Zuko said with a shrug, though she noticed that he was blushing rather hard as well. “They already know that you’re one of my best friends. Honestly, I think it would be ruder if I didn’t ask you.”

“Well then,” Katara said, surprisingly touched by him calling her one of his ‘best friends’. “I accept.”

Zuko gave her a relieved grin, and she couldn’t help but smile back.

There was a polite cough behind them, and they both turned to see Zuko’s advisor Reo standing a few feet away, looking serious.

“My Lord, a word?” he asked Zuko.

Zuko nodded. “Wait here,” he told Katara and walked over to join him.

Katara watched Zuko’s face become steadily more troubled as Reo whispered in his ear until he looked just as tired as he had that morning. Once Reo had finished speaking, Zuko dismissed him with a bow and went back over to Katara.

“What was that all about?” she asked him.

Zuko sighed. “That was news about your ambassador Panuk,” he told her quietly.

“Did they find his ship?” she asked, her heart beating, though the look on his face had already given her her answer.

Zuko shook his head. “Not exactly. His body washed ashore Whaletail Island two days ago. I’m sorry, Katara. He’s dead.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh, things are getting interesting now.
> 
> I know that canonically Zuko and Katara never actually met Hahn, but I couldn't resist adding him as the Northern Water Tribe's ambassador, it makes Katara's take-down of him that much better lol. They could have heard about him from Sokka and Iroh, right?
> 
> I also wanted to mention that this is not necessarily an Azula redemption story so to speak, but the story does dive more deeply into her character and her motivations, and whether or not that includes any form of redemption you'll just have to wait and see :)
> 
> Next time is where the real action starts, so get excited! I also promise there's a lot more Zutara interaction lol.
> 
> Thanks for reading and please make sure to leave a comment and tell me how you liked it!


	3. Chapter 3

“Katara? Katara!”

Zuko’s voiced sounded like it came from far away. A hand grasped her shoulder, and she jolted out of her trance to find him staring at her, his amber eyes full of concern.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“I…I should have seen this coming,” she muttered. “I think I knew, deep down, but I didn’t want to believe it, and…oh Spirits, Zuko, I have to write to my father!”

Zuko let go of her shoulder and stepped back with a terse nod.

“I’ll walk you back to your room,” he said quietly. “But don’t send the letter until tomorrow morning. I think I should include a message to Chief Hakoda as well.”

They walked back to the guest quarters in silence. The news had shaken Katara more than she expected. She hadn't known Panuk particularly well, but he had a wife and two little girls, one of whom was good friends with one of Katara's waterbending students. She pictured his daughters back home in the South Pole, watching the ocean with their big blue eyes and waiting for a father who would never come home. She shuddered, and Zuko shot her a worried look.

They stopped at the door to Katara’s room and turned to face each other. Zuko raised his hand and looked as though he might touch her shoulder again, but at the last minute, he seemed to think better of it and returned it to his side.

“I’ll have more information for you tomorrow,” he told her after a long pause. “Goodnight, Katara."

"Goodnight," she whispered. He nodded and turned to go, and she was left standing in the doorway feeling an overwhelming sense of sadness and dread.

Katara’s letter to Hakoda was sent out early the next morning, a note from Zuko explaining some of the details attached to the back. After the initial shock had worn off, Katara found herself simply angry and confused with the whole situation. Zuko had told her that the remains of Panuk's ship had washed up along with his body, and from what his men could make out from the wreckage, it appeared as though the ship had dashed against some rocks and its passengers drowned.

“But that doesn’t make any sense!” Katara had practically yelled at him. “Panuk was an expert sailor and he’d been traveling the same route to the Fire Nation for the past four years! I’m sure he knew every rock and iceberg from here to the South Pole!”

Zuko frowned at her. “What do you want me to say? Maybe they encountered a storm. The ocean is unpredictable, as I’m sure you know,” he added quickly as Katara gave him a furious look. “so unless you’re going to insist that I arrest a rock formation, I don’t see what else I can do.”

Katara let out a groan of frustration and turned away, facing the window that looked out of his office into the courtyard below. She felt him come over to stand beside her. He didn’t say anything and only stared out the window as well, but his close presence was enough to comfort her and to slow her racing thoughts.

“You’re right,” she said quietly. “Or I hope you’re right, in any case. The Southern Water Tribe can’t afford to enter another war any time soon, so until we know for certain whether or not there was foul play, I think its best that we keep this to ourselves.”

Zuko nodded. “Agreed.”

The rest of the week went by quickly. The trade negotiation meetings were an overwhelming success, even with Hahn's attempts to sabotage Katara whenever he could, and she was surprised to learn that she was actually enjoying herself. She liked the long meetings, the gritty details of international treaties, making speeches on behalf of her tribe, and finding ways to make life better for people regardless of which nation they lived in. Zuko was right, she _was_ good at this, and it felt so good to have a say in shaping the future after what felt like years of staying on the sidelines.

The last day of the week and the night of the state dinner was a full moon. Katara was restless all day, though she wasn't sure if it was because of the full moon or if it was something else. She had plenty of experience dining with kings, queens, and nobles of all sorts during her travels with Aang, but somehow the thought of being Zuko’s "honored guest" tonight made her nervous.

That evening, she finished putting her hair into a long braid and fastened her mother’s necklace around her throat, the beads on the sleeves of her dress rustling as she did so. The dress was made out of a floaty, sky-blue material that she had hand-beaded herself, much lighter than the formal clothes she normally wore in the South Pole and more suited to the oppressive heat of a Fire Nation summer. Having finished getting ready, she went to leave and almost left her water skin laying on her desk, but at the last minute picked it up and strapped it to her waist as well, figuring that it was better to be safe than sorry.

She met Zuko and Iroh in front of the main banquet hall. Katara could hear the excited murmurs of the nobles and courtiers behind the closed doors, all anxious for the dinner to begin. Zuko’s eyes widened when he saw her, and he swallowed nervously. He seemed to be at a loss for words.

“Miss Katara!” Iroh said as she came to a stop in front of them. “You look absolutely beautiful tonight!” He gave Zuko a very pointed look. “Doesn’t she, nephew?”

Zuko turned bright red. “Yes,” he rasped. “You look…nice,” he told her lamely, and Katara could feel a blush rising on her own cheeks.

“Thanks,” she told him. “You look nice too.” He was wearing his ceremonial robes tonight, crimson trimmed with gold with a wide black collar. 

"Thanks," he muttered awkwardly.

Iroh was watching them with a mischievous smile on his face. “Are you coming in with us?” Katara asked him, and he shook his head.

“I have a meeting with Azula’s doctors to discuss her treatment," he told her, "but I will come join the party after we finish." He smiled. "Now go, your guests are waiting. Save some komodo chicken for me!" he called over his shoulder and left Katara and Zuko alone together in the hallway. They stared at each other.

“Um…should we go in?” Zuko asked her awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Katara smiled up at him. “Ready when you are, Fire Lord.”

He gave her a small smile in return and held out his arm. She took it, and the doors opened and they stepped into the banquet hall.

The walls were draped with huge red and gold banners, all proudly displaying the Fire Nation insignia. There were rows of tables on either side of the hall, all filled with nobles dressed in various shades of red. Guards were posted at every corner of the room, their faces neutral but their eyes alert. In the back was a long table elevated on a dais with an ornate gold chair placed right in the center, which was obviously supposed to be the Fire Lord's seat. 

The nobles all rose to their feet at Katara and Zuko's entrance. They stared at Katara with curious eyes, and she blushed, feeling exposed as the only drop of blue in the sea of red before her.

As they reached the back of the hall, Katara was relieved to realize that the other ambassadors were seated at the Fire Lord’s table as well. Wei and Hei-Kyung both gave her polite nods as they passed, and though Hahn scowled when he saw her, he thankfully chose not to say anything. Zuko stopped at the chair on the right side of the Fire Lord’s seat and pulled it out for Katara. She sank into it gratefully. 

Zuko remained standing. The crowd fell silent, and every eye turned to his expectingly.

“Thank you all for being here tonight,” he said loudly. “The Fire Nation is honored to have hosted ambassadors from the Earth Kingdom and the two Water Tribes this week, and we have had a very successful first round of trade negotiations. I look forward to the continued friendship and cooperation between all of our nations. "

"Now,” he raised his wine glass, and Katara quickly picked hers up as she realized everyone else was raising theirs as well, “Let the feast begin!”

A loud cheer went up, and servers began to pour into the hall, swarming the tables with a variety of delicious-looking dishes, some of which Katara was familiar with, and some that she had never seen before.

“What is that?” she asked Zuko, pointing to a plate of crispy, breaded meat surrounded by mushrooms.

“Fire-flake fried duck with stalknose mushrooms,” he told her and put a large helping on his plate. “My favorite. Careful though, it’s a little spicy,” he said, as Katara reached for some as well.

“I’ve yet to find food in the Fire Nation that _isn’t_ spicy,” Katara informed him. “I don’t know how you people stand it!”

“Our taste buds have all burnt off a long time ago,” Zuko said dryly, and Katara laughed. 

She still wasn’t used to this new Zuko who smiled and made jokes and sometimes looked at her with a fond expression in his eyes that made her blush and duck her head. It was so different from his intense attitude during the war, and she found herself looking forward to these glimpses of a softer side of him, mentally cataloging every joke and smile like a precious keepsake to save for later.

“You know,” he said more seriously, “I asked the cook to make some traditional Southern Water Tribe dishes for today, but he said he didn’t know of any. I wish we had more non-spicy foods. I feel like I’ve seen you eat nothing but mangos the entire time you’ve been here.”

“I like mangos,” Katara protested, though she was touched by his efforts to make her feel more comfortable in his homeland. “And besides, I think Fire Nation food might be beginning to grow on me.”

To demonstrate, she picked up a piece of previously untouched komodo chicken off her plate and took a bite. It was much spicier than she was expecting though, and she quickly gulped some tea and tried to ignore her watering eyes as Zuko watched her with amusement.

"Mhmm, so good!" she managed to choke out, giving him an unconvincing thumbs up.

He burst out laughing, and Katara nearly fell out of her seat with surprise. It was like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, transforming his serious face into the carefree teenager who he never truly got to be. A flock of sparrowkeets erupted in her stomach and continued to flutter long after his breathless laughs subsided into a few chuckles.

"Sorry," he gasped, "I didn't mean to laugh at you, but maybe you should just stick with mangos for the time being."

He looked so earnest that Katara felt a bubble of laughter rise up in her own throat. 

“I think you may be right,” she told him, and they dissolved into giggles together this time.

An hour later, Iroh still hadn't joined them at the dinner. Katara mentioned this to Zuko, but he seemed unconcerned.

"Uncle is always late to everything," he said with a shrug. "He was probably playing Pai Sho with the doctor or something and lost track of time."

Before Katara could respond though, they were interrupted by one of the servers, who was holding a bottle of wine and looked rather nervous to be in the Fire Lord’s presence.

“A gift from…from General Akio, my Lord” the server said. "He sends his regrets."

“Really?” Zuko said. “I thought he was supposed to be here tonight. Was he detained in Ba Sing Se?”

The server shrugged. “Apparently, my Lord.”

Zuko nodded and gestured for the server to pour the wine. He did so, and Katara frowned. The wine felt…heavier somehow. Her waterbending senses were extra sensitive that night because of the full moon, and she had been subconsciously sensing wine being poured into people’s glasses all evening. But this was different, though she couldn’t put a finger on just how exactly.

“Zuko…” she muttered, as his hand reached out for his glass. “I don’t think you should drink that.”

He looked at her, confused. “Why?”

“I don’t know, I can’t explain it. It’s just a feeling.”

Zuko frowned. “It’s traditional for nobles to send the Fire Lord a gift whenever they're invited to a formal event but can’t attend,” he told her. “I’ve known General Akio for years. It would be rude to not at least take a sip.”

“Okay, but…” Katara started to argue, but he had already picked up the glass and taken a large drink.

Immediately, he collapsed on the ground and began to shake.

“ZUKO!” Katara screamed as the banquet hall erupted into a chorus of panicked shouting as the nobles realized that their Fire Lord had been poisoned.

She dropped to her knees beside him, and, working quickly, reached out with her bending to locate the wine in his stomach. With a shaking hand, she isolated it and drew it up from his stomach, through his esophagus and out of his mouth, letting it splatter on the ground beside them. He let out a gasp of air, and Katara knew that she had saved him.

The whole process took only a few seconds, but it was enough of a distraction for the server who gave Zuko the drink to slip into the crowd.

“He’s getting away!" a guard yelled, and Katara looked up to see a flash of crimson robe go out the doorway.

She scrambled to her feet, a wave of anger suddenly hitting her with full force. This man had nearly killed Zuko, and by the spirits, she was going to make him _pay_.

“Stay with your Fire Lord!” she yelled at the guards, already bounding out of the room. “I’m going to catch him!”

The assassin had a significant head start, but thankfully, Katara was a fast runner. She chased him through multiple hallways, sometimes only catching a glimpse of his robe before he darted out of sight again. He rounded a corner, Katara close behind, but then all of a sudden, he was gone.

He had led her into the Royal Portrait Gallery. The hall was dark, the torches long since burned down to ashes, and the only light came from a sliver of the moon that peered in through the high windows. The faces of the previous Fire Lords looked ghostly in the pale moonlight, and Katara had a peculiar feeling like she was being watched.

She took a few careful steps forward, her hand over her water skin. She was thankful now more than ever that she had decided to bring it with her tonight. The sound of her footsteps echoed loudly in the empty chamber.

 _Where are you?_ she thought.

He was close, that she knew. Because of the full moon, she could sense his presence, the rhythm of his steady heartbeat.

“I know you’re in here,” she called out, her calm voice concealing the fury that had bubbled up inside her and was now threatening to boil over and scald him. “What? Too scared to face me?”

There was a sudden movement behind one of the large pillars, and she spun towards it, her hands going up instinctively into claws. The assassin froze, and Katara’s eyes widened.

_What am I—_

She released her hold on him as soon as she realized what she was doing but quickly replaced it with water from her water skin. Icicles shot from her fingers like daggers, pinning the assassin to the pillar behind him. 

“You should have known better than to mess with a waterbender during a full moon”, Katara told him coldly. “That was stupid of you.”

The assassin lifted his head and grinned at her unpleasantly. Gone was the nervous, stammering act from earlier. His eyes were cold and dark as they bored into her own.

“No,” he said. “It means I succeeded.”

Before Katara could ask him what he meant, she heard the sound of frantic footsteps. Two of Zuko’s guards were running down the hallway and came to a stop in front of her, breathing hard.

“Is the Fire Lord all right?” she demanded, already feeling a little guilty for leaving Zuko to chase after the assassin.

“Yes, my lady,” one of the guards said, a little breathlessly. “He’s been moved into the palace infirmary. We were ordered to go find you and make sure you were okay.” He gestured to the assassin. “Is that him?”

Katara nodded. “I’ll let you two deal with him. I’m going to see Zuko.”

The door to the infirmary was heavily guarded by Fire Nation soldiers. Katara walked up to them, her heart pounding in her chest. Now that the adrenaline had started to wear off, she realized just how scared for Zuko she had really been.

“How is he?” she asked one of the guards, trying to conceal the slight tremor in her voice.

The guard, taking pity on her, gave her a small smile. “A little shaken, but otherwise, he’s fine. He’s been asking for you.” He opened the door and Katara stepped inside.

It was a dark little room, only used when the Fire Lord was sick or in the case of emergencies. Six beds, all covered in pristine white sheets, lined the walls. Zuko was sitting up in the bed farthest from the door, his face turned towards the window. He had changed out of his formal robes and was wearing a simple gray tunic; his hair had come out of his topknot. It was longer than Katara remembered, long enough now to just brush the tops of his shoulders. 

At the sound of the door opening, he turned, and seeing her, gave her a small reassuring smile.

“Zuko…” she whispered, the breath coming out of her like she had been punched in the stomach. Without another word, she rushed forward and threw her arms around him.

After a brief hesitation, his arms came up to encircle her waist, and she held him even tighter, turning her head in towards his neck and feeling his soft hair brush against her cheek. Tears pricked at the back of her eyes.

“Hey…” She heard Zuko say softly. “It’s okay. I’m okay.”

His voice sent her over the edge, and she drew back to glare at him, the tears now falling hot and fast down her cheeks.

“No, it’s not okay!” she told him angrily. “That’s the second time now I’ve had to watch you almost die in front of me; the second time I’ve had to save your life from…from your own stupidity!” 

He nodded and had the decency to look at least somewhat ashamed. His hands now rested on her elbows, gently tracing little circles over her skin. “I know,” he said. “I, um…thank you.”

She glared at him. “I won’t let you die, Zuko. Not yet. But don’t let it happen again.”

Zuko gave her a wry smile. “I’ll be sure to tell that to whoever tries to kill me next. 'Excuse me, could you maybe cut it out? Katara of the Southern Water Tribe says I’m not allowed to die yet'.”

She let out a watery laugh that was really much closer to a sob. “I hate you,” she told him.

Zuko shook his head, his amber eyes soft as they gazed at her. “No, you don’t.”

“No, I don’t,” she whispered and rested her head on his shoulder. 

One of his hands came up to cover hers, the rough pads of his fingers stroking over her wrist. She could have stayed in that position until the sun came up, but all too soon, there was a knock on the door, and reluctantly, they broke apart.

It was one of the guards from outside, and he approached the bed with a grim expression on his face.

“What is it?” Zuko asked him. “What’s happened?”

“My Lord, I’m sorry for not telling you this earlier, but I was just informed myself. Yours was not the only assassination attempt of the night."

Katara’s blood ran cold. _Iroh_ , she thought. 

Zuko obviously had the same thought, as she felt him tense beside her, and his voice was even more strained than usual as he asked “Is my uncle alive?”

“Yes,” the guard said, and Zuko let out a sigh of relief. “He wasn't targeted, but he was in the room when there was an attack on Princess Azula. He suffered only a minor head injury, but it appears…” he paused, seeming to choose his words carefully. “It appears that the princess killed her attacker. We’re not really sure. She was found in a delirious state standing over the body, and General Iroh was knocked out in the corner.”

 _Great spirits_ , Katara thought. It was a horrifying picture.

Zuko closed his eyes. “I’m just glad they’re okay,” he murmured, and Katara nodded in agreement.

The guard awkwardly cleared his throat. “That’s not all though,” he said, and Katara swallowed, dreading whatever it was that he was about to say next. What else could have possibly happened?

“The former Fire Lord Ozai was found dead in his cell about an hour ago, along with the soldiers guarding him. His killer was nowhere to be found.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for leaving you on another cliffhanger :)
> 
> I promise we will dive deep into what happened to Ursa next chapter, so don't worry, I haven't forgotten about her!
> 
> Thank you all so much for your support and all your lovely comments. It really inspires me to write and I think I've been able to get these chapters out so quickly because of all the wonderful feedback I'm getting, so please keep it up!
> 
> Katara's dress in this chapter was inspired by this beautiful artwork by @tadpole-art on tumblr, just a more summery version https://tadpole-art.tumblr.com/post/624484705886142464/


	4. Chapter 4

She stood alone in a dark stone hallway. She was lost, but the walls had an eerie familiarity about them, almost as if she had been here before but had since forgotten. She started walking. Hallway after hallway, turn after turn, and all she saw was that same oppressive dark stone. It was like she was in a maze. Feeling trapped, she began to panic and broke out into a run. But no matter where she went, the hallways just looked the same: cold and empty and dark. 

She rounded a corner and came to a sudden stop. Azula was sitting on the stone floor, a Pai Sho board set up at her feet. She raised her head, and her amber eyes, so much like Zuko’s, locked on to Katara’s own with something like a challenge.

“Are you going to play me or not, water peasant? Don’t just stand there, make yourself useful.”

“I…I don’t know how to play,” Katara stammered.

But Azula seemed to have not heard her. “Well don’t expect to beat me this time. I’ve been practicing.”

She placed a tile in the starting position of the board, but before either of them could react, Katara felt herself falling. She dropped through the floor and found herself face to face with the assassin from the previous night. She hastily reached for her water skin, but to her horror, found that it was gone.

“I already caught you,” she whispered. “You’re in a cell deep within the capital prison, and you didn’t kill Zuko. You failed.”

The assassin turned his dark eyes to her and smiled. “No. I succeeded.”

He lunged towards her, and seconds before his hands closed around her throat she started to bloodbend him.

He gasped and began to shake, his body contorting into strange angles as she forced him away from her. Tears rolled down her face as she watched him, horrified, but it was like she couldn’t stop, couldn’t break her hold on him.

“I have to,” she sobbed. “I don’t have a choice, I don’t have my water skin.”

_But you did last night_ , said a voice inside her head.

The last thing she heard as she was plunged into darkness once more was the gravelly voice of Hama.

_“Congratulations, Katara. You’re a bloodbender.”_

Katara shot up in her bed, breathing so hard it felt like she had just run several miles. The clock above her desk read 2:30 AM, and she sighed and waited for her heart to gradually come back to a steady rhythm.

It was now technically two days since the attempt on Zuko’s life. Neither of them had slept the night of the incident, and now it seemed like Katara wouldn’t be able to get any sleep tonight either. She got out of bed and went to open her window, closing her eyes and listening to the distant sounds of the city below. She shivered, though she wasn’t sure if it was due to the cool night or because of her dream.

It had shaken her to her very core to realize that she had nearly bloodbended the assassin the previous night, almost on instinct. The only other time she could remember being that angry was when she did the same to the captain of the Southern Raiders, thinking that he was the man who had killed her mother. It scared her to know that somehow, Zuko nearly dying inspired those same feelings of blind fury and revenge.

Feeling restless, she decided to go for a walk, hoping to clear her head of her increasingly troubling thoughts. She knew the guards’ rotations well enough by now to know how to avoid them, and she walked aimlessly through the hallways for a while until, almost by accident, she found herself standing in front of the door to Zuko’s study.

The door was ajar, so she knocked softly and slipped inside.

Zuko was standing by the window, his hair disheveled and a robe hastily thrown over his black sleep clothes.

“It’s me,” she said softly, and he turned around to look at her in surprise.

“Katara. Hi.”

The bags under his eyes were darker than she had ever seen them, and she wondered how much sleep he had gotten that night, if any.

He walked towards her. “What are you doing up so late?”

“Waterbenders: we rise with the moon, remember?” she joked half-heartedly, but Zuko only gave her a look.

She sighed. “I had a bad dream. What about you? Don’t tell me that you’ve been in this office all night doing Fire Lord things.”

His mouth turned up into almost a half-smile. “I couldn’t sleep. My mind was just too full of, well, everything.”

Katara nodded. “I know what you mean.” She pointed to a piece of paper clutched in his right hand. “What is that?”

“This? It’s a letter from General Akio. Apparently, he _was_ supposed to attend the state dinner, but at the last minute his ship sprung a leak and he couldn’t repair it in time. The weird thing is though, the poisoned wine was sent from his address in Ba Sing Se, but it wasn’t his official gift. That arrived along with this letter a full day _after_ the state dinner. So really, I had no reason to suspect that it would be poisoned.”

Katara frowned. “Except for the fact that a master waterbender told you something was off about it.”

Zuko coughed. “Yes, well, anyways….” He put the letter down and went to sit in the chair behind his desk. "What was your dream about?” he asked, changing the subject abruptly.

Katara sighed. She wasn’t sure she wanted to share certain parts of her dream with him if she were honest. She hated talking about her bloodbending abilities. It was a dark, shameful part of her that she didn’t even like to think of herself. She knew Zuko would never judge her for losing control (especially since he had seen her do so before) but somehow, this was different, though she was hesitant to explore the reasons why. So she chose a safer, though no less troubling, part to tell him about instead.

“I saw the assassin from last night,” she said. “Something he said to me after I caught him stuck with me and I haven’t been able to figure out what he meant by it.”

“What did he say?”

“I told him that he was stupid to try and fight a waterbender during a full moon. But he just smiled at me and said ’No. It means I succeeded.’”

Zuko frowned. “He succeeded? But he didn’t end up killing me, thanks to you,” he added. “What can he mean by that?”

“I don’t know!” Katara said, frustrated. She sat down in the chair in front of Zuko’s desk so that they were now facing each other. “Who do you think hired him?” she asked. “You said that the wine definitely came from Ba Sing Se, do you think the Earth Kingdom could be behind this? Or any of the other nations?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think its King Kuei or Chief Arnook. And I know it’s not your father,” he said with a small smile. “Actually, the Fire Nation is finally on good terms with every other nation for the first time in over a hundred years. Why would they jeopardize that?”

“Maybe it’s an Ozai sympathizer?” Katara said, and Zuko shook his head again.

“No. I thought that at first too, but then why would they also go after him and Azula? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Katara thought for a second. “Who gets the throne if you die?” she asked. “Maybe this person thought that if they killed off the whole royal family, they would be able to take the throne instead.”

Zuko made a face. “Azula. It’s not a perfect system, which is why my advisors kept trying to get me and Mai to marry for so many years. They were very disappointed when we broke up.” He rolled his eyes. “But the line of succession doesn’t work like that. Even if everyone in the royal family were killed off, the Fire Sages would find some distant cousin on either my mother’s or my father’s side of the family, and then they would become the Fire Lord instead.”

Katara frowned. “Maybe they don’t know that then.”

Zuko sighed. “Maybe. I don’t know. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since it happened, and I’m no closer to an answer than you are.”

He reached forward and picked up a scrap of fabric lying on top of a stack of papers and showed it to her. It was a black patch, embroidered with three different characters in a golden thread.

“Hand of the Dragon,” Katara read. “What does it mean?”

Zuko shrugged. “It was stitched onto the shirt of the man who tried to kill Azula. I can’t figure out if it’s supposed to be his name, some group he’s a part of, or whoever it was who hired him. But whatever it means, I wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with the other two assassins as well.”

Katara put the fabric back on Zuko’s desk. Her mind was spinning with even more questions than before. Zuko glanced at her.

“Uncle and I are going to the capital prison in the morning to interrogate the captured assassin,” he said. “We’re meeting in the entranceway in—” he looked at the clock on his desk and groaned, “—four hours. Would you like to come with us?”

He said it casually enough, but Katara still caught the unspoken plea for support in his question. She gave him a small smile.

“Of course I will.”

He looked relieved. “Good. We should try to get some sleep. Dawn is only a couple of hours away.”

“Agreed,” Katara said, stifling a yawn behind her hand. 

They got up together and walked over to the door. Zuko opened it and made to move past her out into the hallway, but before he could, Katara put a hand on his arm.

“Wait,” she said softly.

He turned back to her, a guarded look in his eyes.

“Are you—are you sure you’re all right, Zuko?” she asked him. “I know Ozai was a monster, but, well, he was still your father.”

Zuko turned his face away so that she was facing his scarred cheek.

“He hadn’t really been my father for a very long time,” he said quietly. “I’m just glad that Azula and Uncle are okay. If they had gone after Uncle instead, if he had been the one who had died—” he swallowed, “—I don’t know what I would have done.”

Katara felt a lump rise in her own throat, and she reached out and gently took his hand. He looked down at their intertwined fingers and seemed to draw strength from it.

“We’re all still here,” he said somewhat shakily. “That’s all that matters.”

They went back to their respective rooms soon after that. Katara managed to get a few more hours of restless sleep, but all too soon, the morning sun was shining through her window and it was time to meet Zuko and Iroh. She walked down to the palace entranceway, yawning heavily.

Iroh greeted her with his characteristic friendly smile. He had a large painful-looking bump on his forehead wrapped in gauze, and she felt a flash of anger towards whoever it was who had given it to him.

“How are you doing?” she asked him.

“A little worse for wear, but nothing I can’t recover from,” Iroh said brightly.

“And…how is Azula?” Katara asked, and his cheerful face fell somewhat.

“Not good,” Zuko answered for him. “I went to see her yesterday and she’s refusing to speak to anyone. She just keeps staring at the wall, muttering something about Pai Sho."

Katara frowned, remembering her dream from last night. Before she could respond though, they were interrupted by the arrival of their trolley.

They all piled inside and were soon off to the capital prison, an imposing building carved into the side of a volcanic crater, isolated from the rest of the city and heavily guarded by Fire Nation soldiers.

_How did Ozai’s assassin even make it to his cell?_ Katara wondered as she gazed up at the thick stone walls. It seemed almost impossible, but somehow they had done it and managed to escape without getting caught.

A guard opened the front gate for them and ushered them into the prison. He led them down several flights of stairs and multiple dark hallways until Katara could tell that they were deep underground. She closed her eyes and felt the movement of tiny streams of water running through the cracks between the rocks, like veins inside a person’s arm. Eventually, they stopped in a medium-sized chamber filled with several cells, most of them empty.

“He’s in the cell third from the end,” the guard told them. “I’ll be right outside. Shout if you need anything.”

They walked over. The assassin was sitting on the ground with his back up against the back wall of the cell. He lifted his head at the sound of their approaching footsteps.

“So, Fire Lord Zuko,” he said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Finally come by to say hello?”

Katara stared at him. He was a younger man than she expected, thirty, maybe thirty-five at the most. He had dark hair, dark eyes, and a plain, forgettable face, which she supposed was an advantage for someone in his profession.

Zuko ignored him. “What is your name?” he asked in an authoritative voice.

The assassin shrugged. “Does it matter? That’s not the question you really want answered.”

Zuko scowled. “Fine. Who hired you? Why do they want me dead? Did they also hire the assassins who went after Azula and Ozai?”

“Nephew…” Iroh said warningly, but the assassin only laughed.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. Couldn’t say,” he said, ticking the answers off on his fingers.

“He’s lying,” Katara said sharply, though she didn’t have any proof. Spirits, she wished Toph were here.

Zuko reached into his pocket and pulled out the scrap of fabric he had shown Katara earlier.

“Do these characters mean anything to you?” he asked the assassin. 

The man glanced at the fabric than quickly back at Zuko’s face, hiding a flicker of surprise behind another soulless grin. Anyone who wasn’t watching closely would have missed it, but Katara did not, and she knew that Zuko and Iroh wouldn’t have either.

“Where did you get that?” the assassin asked in a would-be casual voice.

“From the body of the man who tried to kill my sister,” Zuko said. “Now stop avoiding the question. Do you know what these characters mean or not?”

There was a long silence as they glared at each other, neither of them willing to break their gaze. Finally, the assassin sat back against the wall and folded his hands.

“No,” he said simply.

Zuko let out a groan of frustration and turned back to Katara and Iroh. 

“What should I do?” he asked them. “He doesn’t want to tell us anything, but I know that those characters mean something to him, he just won’t admit it.”

“Have patience, nephew,” Iroh said. “These kinds of things take time. We know now that this ‘Hand of the Dragon’ phrase is important, maybe we should come back once we have more information about it, see if that will get him to crack.”

Zuko nodded. He shot one more disdainful look back at the cell and turned to leave, but before he could go any more than a few steps, the assassin called out.

“You look just like her, you know.”

Zuko froze. He slowly turned back to the cell and glared at the assassin. “Who?”

The assassin smiled his unpleasant smile. “Your mother. You have the same eyes.”

Zuko lunged forward, grabbing the bars of the cell. Katara stumbled backward, startled. “How did you know my mother?” he growled.

The assassin simply raised his eyebrows, unbothered by Zuko’s sudden outburst. “Didn’t your father tell you? I was one of the men he sent to kill her.”

Zuko’s face had turned stark white.

“But maybe you don’t want to hear…” the assassin said, trailing off, and Katara could have strangled him right then herself. _Stop playing with him!_ she wanted to shout.

“No. Tell me.” Zuko demanded, and the assassin smiled again and began to speak.

“My partner and I were given the job eight years ago. It was all very secretive, arranged through backdoor channels and stand-ins, so at first, we didn’t realize that it was Fire Lord Ozai himself who had hired us. But with a little digging of our own, it wasn’t too hard to find out. Your mother had hidden herself well, but eventually, we discovered that she was living in a little town called Himitsu under a different name, working in an herbalist shop. We watched her closely for over a week, and then it was time to make our move.”

He paused to pick up a pebble on the floor of the cell and examined it between his fingers. Zuko’s hands were balled into fists, but he was hanging on to every word, a look in his eyes like a ravenous wolf.

“Our usual method of assassination is simple. A shirshu spit dart dipped in poison and delivered at close range. It is effective, untraceable, and makes it look like the person simply suffered a heart attack. All my partner had to do was walk into her shop at the end of the day and pretend that he needed a consultation. I waited on the rooftop of the building across the street as his lookout, ready to interfere if there were any problems. Several hours went by. I waited and I waited, but he never came back out of the shop.

Eventually, I went back to our rendezvous point, thinking that maybe he had gone out the back door to avoid detection and forgot to tell me. It was foolish of me, but I was younger then, less experienced than I am now. Several more hours passed and he didn’t show, so I went back to the shop. It was pristine, seemingly untouched. I searched the whole place, including the apartment above, but couldn’t find so much of a trace of either my partner or your mother. They had both disappeared.”

He fell silent. Zuko looked as though he couldn’t speak. He was breathing hard, his hands clenching and unclenching into fists. Iroh walked over and put a hand on his shoulder to steady him. Furious, Katara stalked up to the cell.

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” she spat at the assassin. “Zuko’s already been given false hope before, and I swear if I find out you’re lying—”

The assassin met her gaze steadily. “Why would I lie? I couldn’t tell you if she’s still alive or not. My partner never missed his mark. But I also never found either of their bodies. Do with that information what you will.”

“I think it’s time to go,” Iroh said firmly, and Katara turned. Zuko looked to be almost on the verge of a panic attack. She nodded, and with one final glare back at the assassin, put a hand on Zuko’s back and helped Iroh lead him out of the prison.

Once they were outside the stone walls, Zuko stopped them abruptly and walked several paces away to the middle of the courtyard. With a loud grunt, he threw several fire punches in quick succession. The guards positioned nearby watched him anxiously. When he finally stopped, he turned back to Katara and Iroh with a hard, determined look on his face. 

“Zuko…” Iroh said warningly. “I know that look. What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking, Uncle, that it’s time for me to take a little vacation.”

Iroh opened his mouth to argue, but Katara was quicker. “Zuko, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

He turned on her. “Why not?” he growled.

“Because I think it may be a trap!”

He let out a noise of disbelief, and she grabbed his arm, forcing him to look her in the eye.

“Think about it. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before. What kind of idiot tries to poison the Fire Lord during a full moon in the presence of a master waterbender? Why didn’t he run away? I almost lost him twice when I was chasing him, and he could have easily disappeared forever. It’s almost like he _wanted_ to be caught so he could taunt you with this information.”

Iroh nodded. “I’m afraid she might be right, nephew,” he said. “It could very well be a plot to take you away from the palace and the safety of your guards.”

Zuko glared at both of them. He looked angrier than Katara had seen him in a long time, and she put a hand over her water skin, nervous that he might try to lash out and attack them. But then, all of a sudden, he let out a long sigh and seemed to almost collapse in on himself.

“I know,” he said softly, closing his eyes. “But I don’t care. I need to know if she’s still alive.”

And with that, he spun on his heel and began walking quickly back to the trolley, not waiting to see if Katara and Iroh were following him.

For several seconds, Katara was too shocked to do anything but stand there. But once she realized what was happening, she quickly hurried after him, Iroh close behind.

“Zuko, wait!” she called. “Can we at least, I don’t know, talk about this? You can’t just dash off to a random village all by yourself without even so much as a plan!”

Beside her, Iroh let out an amused snort.

Zuko was already inside the trolley. Katara wrenched open the door and sat in the seat directly across from him. She crossed her arms, and they glared at each other. Iroh politely folded his hands and stared out the window, pretending to be very interested in the trees and buildings that passed by underneath them as the trolley began to move.

“You can’t stop me, Katara,” Zuko said from behind clenched teeth. “So don’t even try.”

“Fine.” Katara snapped. “But you can’t go tonight, you haven’t slept more than four hours in the past two days. Promise me you won’t go until tomorrow, at least until we’ve made a plan.”

He stared at her for a long time, his eyes as hard as sparks. “Fine. One more day. And then I’m going.”

Katara blinked, a bit surprised that he hadn’t put up more of a struggle. “Alright, well…good."

Zuko swept out of the trolley as soon as it came to a stop in front of the palace. Katara made to follow him, but before she could, Iroh touched her on the shoulder.

She turned back to him. He looked older, much more serious than she had ever seen him.

“Katara,” he said quietly. “You have known my nephew for nearly six years now, but I’m afraid there are still many things you have yet to learn about him.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that Zuko is very stubborn and set in his ways. Once he makes a decision, no one can convince him to do otherwise, no matter how much they may try. In my experience, it is best to let him make his own choices and to simply be there to help him when he needs it. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”

Katara stared at him. “Yes,” she said softly. “I think I do.”

“He needs someone who will have his back no matter what, now more than ever.”

Katara nodded. “I understand. Thank you, Uncle Iroh.”

Iroh smiled. “Good luck, my dear. I’m afraid you’ll need it.”

Later that night, Katara took Iroh’s advice and positioned herself behind a statue in a secluded alcove a few hundred yards away from the Fire Lord’s chambers, and waited. Zuko’s guards worked in shifts, and every four hours or so there was a short five-minute window when the watch changed, and the hallway was left completely empty. If Zuko decided to sneak out tonight, it would most likely be during one of those times.

Sure enough, a few minutes after midnight and right as the last guard disappeared around the corner, the door to the Fire Lord’s chambers slowly creaked open. Zuko slipped out into the hallway dressed in black stealth clothes, his twin dao swords strapped to his back. Katara swiftly stepped out from behind the statue and right in front of him.

“Going somewhere?”

He scowled. “Katara. What are you doing here?”

She crossed her arms. “I could ask you the same question. Did you really think you could just sneak out in the middle of the night and not have anyone notice?”

He gave her a look that seemed to say that was exactly what he had been thinking, and she glared at him.

“So you’re just going to walk into what is almost certainly a trap with no plan and no backup?”

Zuko glared at her. “I don’t want anyone else getting hurt.”

Katara shook her head. “That’s not what we agreed, Zuko,” she said in a low voice. “We promised not to keep any more secrets from each other, remember? I said that I would go with you to help you find your mother, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do, even if it means that we’re walking directly into a trap.”

He stared at the ground, refusing to meet her eyes. Katara sighed.

“Do you not trust me anymore? Because honestly, it’s starting to feel like you don’t. You stopped writing to me for almost a year. You didn’t listen when I told you not to drink that wine, and you won’t let me come with you now when all I want to do is _help_ you.”

His eyes flickered up to hers. “I trust you,” he said quietly.

“Then maybe you should start acting like it.” She paused and continued in a much softer voice. “You don’t have to do this alone, Zuko. Not anymore.”

He swallowed hard. He seemed to be struggling with something, and Katara watched him breathlessly for several seconds as she waited for his response.

“Okay,” he said finally. “You can come.”

A wave of relief washed over her, but she managed to hide it and instead only gave him a grateful nod.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

With soft footsteps, they slipped out of the palace and into the starless night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, these chapters keep getting longer and longer lol. You may have noticed that I've updated the chapter count, this is mostly just to give me a little bit more space to really tell the story I want to tell, and also so I don't end up with ridiculously long chapters.
> 
> I'm starting classes again tomorrow, so the updates will probably not come as frequently as they have been, but I'm still going to try to keep up with my two-week deadline.
> 
> Thank you all so much for your lovely comments, they seriously make my day! Please keep it up, I'd love to hear your favorite parts and your theories on what you think will happen next :)


	5. Chapter 5

_**Three Years Ago** _

Aang and Katara should have had a perfect relationship. He was the Avatar, she was the Avatar’s best friend. He was kind and fun-loving, she was compassionate and strong. He had saved the world from Fire Lord Ozai, and she had captured the mad princess Azula.

For over two years, they traveled the world together performing Avatar duties and having adventures. Aang was deeply in love with her, as much as a young teenage boy could be, and Katara had a seemingly endless amount of affection towards him. It was impossible not to. But as the years went on, she began to wonder if there was more to life than being the Avatar’s girlfriend.

Aang, as an Air Nomad, was naturally adventurous, always wanting to keep moving on to the next place. But eventually, his sense of adventure started to look more and more like restlessness. They never spoke openly of trying to find survivors of the Fire Nation genocide, but Katara knew it weighed heavily on his mind. She wondered if that was the reason why they kept moving around so much. He was still searching for a sign of his people, even if he didn’t realize it himself.

Outwardly, Aang was as cheerful and optimistic as ever, but eventually, even Katara couldn’t deny that he had changed. He became quieter, more withdrawn. He no longer shared his thoughts with her or asked for her advice. It seemed as though everyone wanted his council, but far too often, Katara felt as if she were left on the sidelines. The Avatar’s girlfriend was not nearly as respected as the Avatar himself, even if she was a war hero in her own right, and she was tired of feeling ignored.

She missed her family, missed her friends, and above all, missed her old life and the easy companionship they used to have before the end of the war. She could see her future as Katara, girlfriend, and later wife of the Avatar clearly in front of her. But where was Katara of the Southern Water Tribe? Katara the master waterbender? That part of her had faded into the background long ago, and she was scared of it disappearing forever.

They broke up at the Southern Air Temple, in almost the exact same spot where Katara had first held him in her arms after he learned of his nation’s fate. Aang had persuaded her to return, hoping to find relics of his culture buried somewhere in the ruins. She was reluctant, remembering their disastrous first visit there, but hoped that their proximity to the South Pole meant that they could visit her family after they were done. It felt like ages since she had last seen Sokka and her father, and she missed them terribly.

After a long day of sifting through the rubble of the old library and finding nothing of worth, they sat down for dinner, both of them dejected. Aang stared moodily into the fire.

“You were right,” he said after a long while. “Maybe we shouldn’t have come here. It’s just been a waste of time.”

“I’m sorry, Aang,” Katara said softly.

He shrugged. “I think we should head towards the Eastern Air Temple next. Guru Pathik still lives around there, so he would have a better idea if there’s anything worth salvaging, and there are some really cool places we can visit on the way. There’s a mountain on the other side of Omashu that’s made entirely out of jennamite! Do you know what that means, Katara? It means that the entire mountain is edible!”

He grinned widely, his stony expression suddenly gone.

Katara smiled back wearily. “That’s great, Aang,” she said. “But I thought we were going to the South Pole after this? I was really looking forward to seeing my family.”

Aang’s face fell. “Oh yeah,” he said. “I’m sorry Katara, I forgot. Could we wait to visit until after the Eastern Air Temple? It’s nearly summer and I don’t want to miss the butterfly migration, it’s so beautiful and amazing and I know you’d love it!”

“Aang,” Katara said, a little desperately. “I want to go _home_.”

“But—but I thought you liked traveling with me?”

“I do,” Katara said with a sigh. “I really do Aang, but we move around so much that I never really get to see any of my friends or family. It’s been nearly a year since I’ve seen Dad and Sokka and Suki, and even longer since we’ve seen Zuko and Toph, not since the last Council of Four Nations meeting. I’m not an Air Nomad, Aang, and I don't want—“

She stopped, as Aang had suddenly turned away, his hands balled into fists.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—“

“It’s okay,” Aang said shakily, although he looked like he was struggling to keep his composure. “I get it.” He sighed deeply. 

“Aang…” Katara said, her voice breaking. She felt as if she were on the verge of tears, but this conversation had been a long time coming.

Aang turned back to her. He looked much older and more tired than a fifteen-year-old boy should in the firelight.  
  
“This isn’t working, is it?” he said quietly.

Katara blinked back her tears. “Wha—what do you mean?”

“You’re not happy with me anymore. Not really.”

She was silent for a long time, not wanting to voice her doubts aloud. But this was Aang. She couldn’t lie to him. She wouldn’t. 

“No,” she whispered. “I’m not.”

He closed his eyes, and Katara felt as if her heart was breaking. 

“I guess that’s it then,” he said flatly. “We’ll start flying to the South Pole tomorrow morning.”

“No,” Katara shook her head. “Just take me to the closest port. I’ll catch a ship to take me home.”

Aang nodded. “Okay,” he said softly. “I’m going to go to bed now.” 

Their easy rapport was gone, and Katara watched as he dug his bedroll out of Appa’s saddlebags and dragged it over to the other side of the fire. She curled up on her own bedroll, tears still rolling silently down her cheeks.

“You were supposed to be my forever girl,” she heard Aang say sadly.

“I know,” she sobbed quietly into the darkness. “I’m sorry.”

There was a long silence, and Aang sighed. “Goodnight, Katara,” he said, not unkindly.

“Goodnight, Aang,” she whispered back.

_**Present Day** _

Katara opened her eyes to bright sunlight. The sea sparkled hundreds of feet below her, and Zuko was staring at her from the other side of the war balloon. She met his gaze, and he blushed and quickly looked away.

“Good, you’re awake,” he said roughly.

They had snuck out of the palace late last night and “borrowed” a war balloon (“it isn’t stealing,” Zuko had told her, “since it technically belongs to the Fire Lord”) from one of the military outposts by the harbor. It was a fast and relatively covert mode of transportation, and they wanted to get as far away from the capital city as possible before anyone could realize they were gone. Zuko, since he knew the Fire Nation the best, had decided to fly the balloon himself, insisting (over her many protests) that Katara try to get some sleep.

“What time is it?” Katara asked him, standing up and yawning.

“A little after noon.”

Spirits, she had been out for a long time. She frowned. “You should have woken me up. You must be exhausted!”

He shrugged. “I’m fine. We’ve covered a lot of ground, that's the most important thing.”

“Are we going to the town the assassin mentioned?” Katara asked quietly. “Himitsu?”

Zuko nodded. “It’s the only lead we have. If my mother did survive the assassination attempt, I doubt she would have stuck around, but maybe there’s someone there who would know where she went.”

Katara crossed her arms. “Okay, but I don't think we should tell anyone there who we really are. It's too dangerous."

“We’ll be careful,” Zuko agreed. He shot another flame into the balloon’s engine. “I left a letter for Uncle back at the palace, leaving him in charge of the Fire Nation while we’re gone. I told him to take my guards and go to a safe house—make it seem like I’ve left with them because I’m worried about another assassination attempt. With any luck, no one, including whoever it is who's trying to kill me, will even realize that I’m gone.”

Katara raised her eyebrows. “You’ve thought about this,” she observed.

Zuko frowned at her. “Are you surprised?”

“No,” she said quickly. He looked unconvinced, and she sighed. “I just—I wish you would have told me about it." She stared out at the ocean below them. "I hate being kept in the dark.” _Especially since I dealt with two years of that from Aang_ , she added silently.

“Oh,” she heard Zuko say quietly from behind her. “I’m sorry.”

But Katara didn’t respond. It wasn’t that she was still angry with him exactly. She could understand his stubbornness, even if she didn’t agree with it. But she was Katara, daughter of Chief Hakoda and the only master waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe. She was risking a lot, running off in the middle of the night to some remote village with the Fire Lord, especially so soon after Panuk’s death. She should be back in the South Pole with her tribe. But Zuko needed her, even if he wouldn’t admit it himself, and she wasn’t about to turn her back on him now.

“Katara...” she heard Zuko’s voice again. “Are you okay? I really am sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you in the dark.”

She turned to face him. He had such an open, earnest look on his face that any lingering resentment immediately melted away under his gaze. 

“I know. It’s just…” she paused. “The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that Panuk’s death wasn’t an accident. I don’t know how, but maybe it was someone’s way to get me to the Fire Nation so that I could save your life, capture the assassin, and have him tell you the story about your mother. And if that’s true—"

"—then we’re acting exactly the way they want us to.” Zuko finished for her. “I know. I’ve thought about it too.” He ran a hand distractedly through his hair. "I wrote a letter to King Kuei before we left, asking if he’s noticed anything odd going on in Ba Sing Se, though I doubt he’ll find anything. He’s never been the most…observant, even now with the Dai Li gone. But one way or the other, we’ll find out who’s behind all of this. I won’t let Panuk’s death go unavenged, I promise.”

Katara smiled at him. “Thank you.” She let out a nervous laugh. “Well, if this actually does end up being a trap, aren’t you glad that I’m here to watch your back?” she teased.

But Zuko only smiled at her, a surprisingly tender look in his eyes.

“I’m always glad you’re with me, Katara,” he said softly, and promptly turned back to the balloon’s engine, leaving her heart to beat out an erratic rhythm in his place.

As the sun sank lower in the sky, Zuko began to look worse and worse. The bags under his eyes were now almost as dark as bruises, and he looked as though he might pass out at any moment. He struggled to keep his eyes open, but grumpily waved off any offer of help, determinedly staring at the horizon as hundreds of tiny green islands passed by underneath them.

Eventually though, Katara could stand it no longer.

“Zuko, we have to stop,” she told him. “You’re no use to your mother if you die of exhaustion before we can even find her, and besides, it’ll be dark soon. You need to sleep.”

Zuko frowned, but even he couldn’t argue with her logic.

“Okay,” he said. “There’s a good-sized island a few hundred yards in front of us. We’ll stop there for the night.”

They steered the balloon down onto the beach, picking a spot under a black rocky overhang that would shield them from the elements, as well as any potential unfriendly eyes.

Katara dragged their bedrolls out of the war balloon as Zuko started a fire with his bending, and they both sat down to eat a rather subdued dinner. Katara stared at him furtively. He looked tense but determined, his mouth set in his usual scowl. It was a marked change from the Zuko of just over a week ago, closer to what she remembered of him from before he joined Team Avatar. Maybe she understood his desperation, his recklessness from that era a little better now.

“I’ll take the first watch,” Katara said once they had finished eating, and Zuko nodded and lay down on his bedroll without complaint. It seemed as though he was more tired than he was willing to let on.

For several minutes, Katara stared into the fire as Zuko tossed and turned on his bedroll a few feet away from her. This went on for a long time, and she even caught a few muffled swears before she took pity on him and asked him what was the matter.

“I can’t sleep,” he mumbled. “I haven’t been able to since the assassination attempt, and it’s only gotten worse since I learned about my mother. I don’t know what to do.”

She looked at him. He had rolled onto his back with his head angled towards her, the scar on the left side of his face illuminated by the flickering firelight. Even in his exhausted state, he was beautiful, and Katara felt her heart clench as he shyly met her eyes.

“Come here,” she muttered and gestured for him to put his head in her lap.

He hesitated, but scooted his bedroll closer and laid his head down on her knee without another word. His hair was unbound, and Katara reached a hand up and gently brushed some strands off his forehead. He immediately tensed, and she stopped.

“Oh. I’m sorry."

“No!“ he said quickly. “Don’t—"

She looked at him in surprise, and he blushed. “I mean—you can, if you want to. It just…surprised me, that’s all.”

“Okay,” Katara said. She smiled at him, and, more tentatively this time, went back to stroking his hair. 

Gradually, he began to relax, the tension slowly leaving his body as she carded her fingers through his soft strands.

"My mother used to do this when I was little to help me sleep,” she explained.

Zuko swallowed. “So did mine.”

“You know,” he said, after a long pause, “if we actually do end up finding her, it’ll have been eleven years since I’ve last seen her. She left three years before my banishment. I wonder if she’ll even recognize me.”

“She will,” Katara said firmly.

Zuko looked up at her. “How do you know?”

“She’s your mother.”

He gazed at her for a long time after that.

“Does it still bother you?” he asked suddenly.

“What?”

“My scar. I know it used to. It’s okay, it bothers most people.”

Her hand stilled in his hair. “No,” she said honestly. "But it does still make me angry, the reason why you got it.”

He closed his eyes. “I know the feeling.”

“Do you remember what I said to you, that day when you told me the story of how it happened?”

“ _You know, I’m almost glad that Aang decided not to kill Ozai_ ,” she had told him. “ _Because I have half mind to go down to the prison right now and finish the job myself._ ”

“Yes,” he whispered.

“I still think that. Or I would, if Ozai were still alive. But that doesn’t mean it bothers me. Your scar is a symbol of the bravery and goodness you’ve had inside of you all along, Zuko. Your mother will realize that too.”

She moved her hand so that it brushed softly against his temple, tracing her fingers over the ruined skin. He looked as though he had stopped breathing, and he opened his eyes to gaze at her with an expression that made her heart catch in her throat.

“Would you have really tried to heal it?” he asked softly.

“What?”

“Back in Ba Sing Se, if we weren’t interrupted…”

Katara considered him for a second. “Yes, I think I would have,” she said, just as softly.

Zuko looked momentarily dumbstruck. “Even though I didn’t deserve it” he rasped.

She smiled at him. “But you deserve it now,” she said. “After this is all over, I could go to the North Pole, if you wanted, get some more water from the Spirit Oasis…”

“No,” Zuko said firmly. “I thought about it a lot, back at the Western Air Temple, and I’m glad you didn’t waste it on me. Aang ended up needing it much more than I did, and besides, my scar is a part of me now. Like you said, it’s a symbol of my choices in life and I don’t think I should wash that away, even if it is ugly to look at.”

“I don’t think anyone in their right mind would call you _ugly_ , Zuko,” Katara muttered, then blushed bright red as she realized what she had just said.

“What?” Zuko sputtered, his eyes wide.

“Nothing! It’s just…oh spirits…scar or no scar you’re…verygoodlooking, okay?”

“Okay,” he said, trying and failing to hide a smirk.

She glared at him. “Shut up. And go to sleep. I’ll wake you up in a few hours.”

His eyes softened, and he shifted in her lap so that he faced outwards towards the fire and any potential threat.

“Goodnight, Katara,” she heard him whisper.

A jolt of _something_ passed through her heart at his words, and she closed her eyes.

“Goodnight, Zuko” she whispered back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little break from all the action for some backstory and character development!
> 
> I get confused with the age ranges for ATLA characters lol, so here's what I'm going with for this fic: Ursa left when Zuko was 10, he was banished at 13, and now, five years after the war ended, he is 21 and Katara is 19. Katara and Aang got together almost immediately following the war and stayed together for over two years. After they broke up, Katara spent the next three-ish years teaching waterbending at the South Pole until the events of our story start.
> 
> Thank you so much for all your kudos and your wonderful comments and please keep them coming, I love hearing about your theories and what you think is going on in Katara and Zuko's heads :)


	6. Chapter 6

The sun was a red disk rising out of the ocean. Katara stood on the beach with the waves lapping at her feet and watched the silvery surface of the water transform to shades of pink and gold as the sun floated up into the sky. The ocean spray kissed her face, and she shivered and pulled her jacket more tightly around her.

Zuko was still asleep by the campfire. She had left him to go change out of her Water Tribe blue into a set of red Fire Nation clothes. A black jacket had been on top of her pack, and she couldn't remember if it was Zuko's or one of the ones she had hastily pulled out of her palace wardrobe as she packed for their trip. But it was early, and she was cold, so she had put it on regardless and went to watch the sunrise as she waited for Zuko to wake up. Thankfully, she didn't have to wait very long.

She kept her eyes on the ocean until she heard his voice behind her.

"Katara."

She turned, and he stood in front of her, bleary-eyed and beautiful in the morning light. His hair was stuck up all on one side, and she smiled at the sight.

“Hi. You’re awake."

He nodded. “I didn’t realize I slept so long. You should have woken me up.”

Katara shook her head. “You needed the sleep,” she told him.

They both fell silent, and she noticed that he was staring at her with an odd expression on his face, his mouth turned up into almost a half-smile.

“What?” Katara said, suddenly feeling self-conscious. She crossed her arms.

“Nothing,” Zuko said. “It’s just—that's my jacket you’re wearing.” He reached out and gently touched the gold embroidery on the sleeve of her wrist, which she just now realized was the characters in his name.

She blushed. “Oh. Sorry, I thought it was mine.”

He removed his hand and instead rubbed the back of his neck, which was now quickly turning a dark shade of pink as well.

“I don’t mind,” he muttered and quickly faced away from her towards the ocean.

There was something different between them this morning, an undefinable shyness tinged with affection that she had only experienced a few times before, mostly with Aang. She didn't know why, but it scared her, so she cleared her throat and tried to change the subject.

“We should probably get going soon,” she told him, and he turned back to her and nodded.

“I’ll get the balloon ready.”

After a few hours of steady flying, Zuko looked up from his map and pointed to a cluster of green mountains on the horizon.

"According to this map," he said. "Himitsu is located near the source of this island's main river. If the wind stays on our side, hopefully we'll reach the village by nightfall."

Katara raised her eyebrows. "That was fast," she remarked.

Zuko shrugged. "We've been lucky."

As they flew closer to the island, Katara started to get the strangest feeling that she had been there before. The island was made up of lush green jungle and rolling hills with a crystal clear river running down the middle, which seemed to flow from a tall mountain near the center of the island. 

"What did you say the name of this river was?" she asked Zuko.

Zuko squinted down at the map. "The Jang Hui River," he read.

Katara started. "The Jang Hui River?"

Zuko looked at her. "Yeah. It's pretty remote, but there are a few fishing villages hear and there along the riverbank. Why, have you heard of it before?"

"Heard of it?" she laughed. "I traveled on it with Aang, Sokka, and Toph towards the end of the war. It just...it looks so different now. I'm glad we were able to make a difference." She lifted her hand, and a spinning sphere of water rose out of the water, which she twisted into shapes before releasing it with a splash. 

She turned back to Zuko, who was looking confused, so she smiled and explained. 

"There was this little fishing village that was struggling because of this Fire Nation factory that was basically poisoning the river and making all the villagers sick. We stopped there one day for provisions, and once we realized what was going on, we got rid of the factory and helped the villagers clean up the river."

Zuko frowned at her. "What do you mean you 'got rid of' the factory? I remember reading reports at the end of the war about someone blowing up a refinery somewhere in the outer islands, but that can't have been..." He stopped at the look on Katara's face. "Wait, you _did_? How?"

Katara blushed. "Well, I wasn't planning to. At first. It's just, the villagers were so sick, and they had no medicine, so one night I snuck into the hospital and healed some of them. But the villagers thought it was a miracle, a gift from the Painted Lady spirit, and it's not like I could just tell them that it was really just a waterbender. So eventually, I just sort of...became her. I started disguising myself as the Painted Lady to go heal the villagers, and soon enough, I realized that they were just going to keep getting sick unless someone did something about the factory. So I blew it up."

Zuko stared at her for a long time. Then to her surprise, he grinned, shaking his head in disbelief.

Katara glared at him. “What?”

He shrugged. “I can’t say that I’m too surprised. That sounds exactly like something you would do.” He laughed. "Even the part where you impersonate a river spirit.”

Katara frowned. “Those people needed our help. I wasn’t about to turn my back on them. I had to do _something_.”

“No! I—" He pinched his nose, frustrated. “I didn’t mean it that way. I’m glad you did it. There are dozens of other towns exactly like Jang Hui, and I’ve spent the last five years trying to clean up the messes left there by my father and grandfather. Most people would have just moved on and tried to forget about it. But you’re different, Katara. You’re good.”

His last words went through her like an ice dagger. He was looking at her with a soft expression in his eyes, but she found that she couldn’t meet his gaze.

“I— I’m going to get something to eat,” she muttered and ducked her head to search her pack for their dwindling supply of bao buns. She could feel his eyes on her, but thankfully he chose not to say anything and eventually went back to steering the balloon over the jungle.

They followed the path of the Jang Hui River for the rest of the afternoon. The river flowed downhill and snaked between hills and mountains, so as they went further inland, the jungle became darker and wilder. Katara found it hard to believe that there was a town nestled in the middle of this wilderness, but she supposed that it also made it the perfect place to hide.

Then, right as the light was beginning to fade, they saw a few gray tendrils of smoke rising out of the jungle.

“That has to be it,” Zuko muttered, and began to slowly maneuver the balloon down to the ground. 

They landed in a small clearing and covered the balloon as best they could under a pile of leaves and branches. Then, with their meager supplies strapped to their backs, they walked in the direction of the rising smoke. Finally, as they stood at the top of a hill, peering through the trees, they saw the village of Himitsu nestled in a valley beneath them.

The village was built on a bend in the river, the mountains on one side and the water on the other. The jungle grew dark and thick right up to the edge of the outermost row of wooden houses. A few small docks dotted the riverbank where fishermen were dragging their boats along the beach, talking and laughing with each other as they went back to their homes for the night.

Katara turned to Zuko. His jaw was set, and he looked tense but determined as he stared out at the scene before them.

“Are you ready for this?” she asked him, and he nodded, his eyes still on the village below.

“Let’s go," he said quietly.

They slipped out of the jungle and around the side of the village to the main entrance, being careful not to be seen by any curious villagers. Then, slowing their steps, they tried to blend in with the various groups of fishermen as they walked down the main road to the center of the village. Zuko had put on a black cloak, the hood pulled low over his face to hide his scar.

“Where do you think the herbalist shop is?” Katara whispered to Zuko as they peered furtively at the houses on either side of them. 

Zuko frowned. “I don’t know. But I bet someone here could tell us.” He pointed to a battered-looking wooden sign swinging from a building in front of them.

“The Red Dragon Inn.” Katara read. “Wonderful.”

Exchanging a look, they stepped inside.

It was a dark room, despite the fire roaring in the fireplace, and occupied by a few surly-looking men sitting at a table in the corner. The other side of the room had a long wooden bar, where a tired-looking man with a black ponytail was methodically polishing glasses. Zuko stepped forward, and, motioning for Katara to follow, walked over to him.

The man looked up at them curiously. “Can I help you?” he asked.

“We’re just looking for the herbalist shop,” Zuko said. “Could you tell us how to get there from here?”

The man raised his eyebrows. “The herbalist shop? That’s been abandoned for years.” He tilted his head. “Are you two looking for Kuma?” he asked. “How did you know her?”

“Um…” Zuko stammered. “She was…um…”

“She was a friend of my mother’s,” Katara said quickly. Zuko gave her a grateful look.

The man frowned. “Well, I’m sorry, I wish I could help you. She disappeared eight years ago. My wife and I run this inn, and we haven’t seen a trace of her ever since.”

Disappointed, Katara glanced back to Zuko, who was also looking dejected. 

“Can’t you tell us anything?” she asked the innkeeper. “We’ve been looking for her ever since the war ended, she’s the only family we have left. Surely you must know something about where she went?”

She gave him the same look she used to give her father to persuade him to let her have the last piece of seal jerky. The man sighed.

“I probably shouldn’t be telling you this…” he said. “But you two seem like trustworthy kids.” He motioned for both of them to come closer and continued on in a low voice.

“My wife has a heart condition. It isn’t life-threatening, but it drains her energy, and sometimes she gets so weak that she can’t even get out of bed. Kuma used to mix us a tincture that helped control her symptoms, but after she left, we didn’t know how to make it ourselves, and the symptoms got much worse. 

But one morning at dawn, I walked outside and found a little bundle of herbs on the doorstep with a scrap of paper with the word "tincture" placed on top. We weren’t sure where it had come from, but at that point, we were desperate to try anything, and to our relief, they worked. Ever since then, every few months or so we find another bundle of herbs at our doorstep, and it’s just enough to keep the worst of my wife’s symptoms at bay.”

“Who are the herbs from?” Katara asked him.

The innkeeper shrugged. “No one knows for certain. The other villagers think it’s the Painted Lady, you know, our guardian river spirit?” He laughed. “But I know better. I think that somehow, Kuma is still close by, watching over us and still taking care of her patients.”

Katara glanced back at Zuko again. He seemed to be struggling to keep a neutral face. 

“Will you excuse us for a second?” she asked the innkeeper, and he nodded. 

She grabbed Zuko’s elbow and pulled him over to stand in front of the fireplace.

“Do you think he’s telling the truth?” she whispered to him, pretending to warm her hands over the fire.

Zuko shrugged. “I don’t know. But it— it sounds like something she would do. She always went out of her way to try and help people.”

Katara crossed her arms. “What should we do? I don’t think you were recognized, but I still don’t like the look of this place. There are too many shady characters.” She glanced over at the men in the corner, a few of whom were looking at them curiously.

“I think we should wait here for a few hours till everyone’s asleep,” Zuko said, “and then sneak out through a window or something just in case someone tries to follow us. If I had to guess, she’ll be hiding somewhere in the jungle.”

Katara nodded, “Alright. Let’s do it.” 

They walked back over to the innkeeper, who looked up at them with a small smile.

“Need anything else?” he asked.

“Do you have a place where we can get some sleep? Katara asked. “We’ve been traveling for hours, and we’re exhausted."

The innkeeper smiled. “I believe the corner room facing the street just opened up this morning,” he told them. “Would you and your boyfriend like to take that one?”

Zuko let out a loud cough, and Katara felt her face suddenly go hot. “He’s not my…oh, never mind,” she muttered, and, not daring to look Zuko in the eye, followed the innkeeper out of the room. 

Right as they reached the doorway, Zuko almost collided with one of the men from the corner table who had gotten up to get another drink.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going!” the man called. 

Zuko only grunted and pulled his hood further over his face, as it had slipped down during the collision. Katara stepped forward.

“Maybe you should watch _you’re_ going,” she said coldly, nodding to the empty tankard in his hand. “It looks like you've had quite enough to drink already.”

The man looked at her with hard green eyes. His gaze flickered back to Zuko again briefly, then rested on her with a tight smile.

“My apologies,” he said, and stepped aside to let them pass.

As soon as the innkeeper left them alone in the room, Katara collapsed onto the bed with a loud sigh.

"I know we're not actually going to spend the night here," she told Zuko, "but honestly, I kind of wish we could. I'm exhausted."

She yawned pointedly, and Zuko gave her a small smile. "You can sleep for a little bit if you want," he told her. "I don't think I could even if I tried. It feels like my heart is going to jump out of my chest."

Katara got up off the bed and went to join him over by the windowsill. 

"We're getting closer," she said softly. "I can feel it. We just have to remember to be careful. I don't like the looks of those men downstairs, and who knows what's waiting for us on the other side of these walls?"

Zuko nodded. "I know." He swallowed and looked down at his feet. Katara could tell that he wanted to say something else but was searching for the right words. Finally, he looked up at her and spoke.

“Katara, I—I want to thank you.”

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, and Katara smiled. “For what?”

“For coming on this trip with me. I know it must be hard for you, especially with what happened to your own mother.”

“Zuko…” Katara murmured. “You don’t have to thank me for that. Of course I came. After everything you’ve done for me and my family, how could I not?”

Zuko shifted his feet uncomfortably. “Yes, well, it’s just…not many people would do something like this. Especially for someone who treated you so badly in the past.” He blushed but looked determinately right in her eyes.

“But you’re different, Katara.”

There it was again. Those same words from earlier, while well-meant, still made her recoil. _“But you’re different. You’re good.”_

She turned away from him, hugging her arms to her chest.

“I wish you wouldn’t say that,” she said cooly.

“Say what?” she heard him ask, confused.

“That I’m so _different_ , or good, or whatever else you’ve been telling yourself. I spent so long trying to be the perfect daughter, the perfect waterbender, the perfect girlfriend, but I’m NOT, and I don't—“ She broke off, as a lump had suddenly formed in her throat, and she swallowed and closed her eyes.

"Katara—“ Zuko said softly. Even though he stood right behind her, he didn't dare touch her, for which she was glad. She thought his hand on her arm might undo her completely. “What are you talking about?”

She turned to face him slowly.

“Zuko, I have to tell you something.”

He frowned at her, concerned. “What is it?”

“The night of the assassination attempt, I—I bloodbended again.”

She paused, waiting for his reaction of disgust, or even worse, fear. But he only stared at her, and so she swallowed down her rapidly beating heartbeat and continued.

“It was right when I cornered the assassin. I promised myself I would never do it again after what happened with the Southern Raiders, but I—I lost control I guess, just like I did then. “I was just so _angry_ —" She stopped suddenly, as tears had sprung to the corners of her eyes.

“Because of what he did to me?” Zuko asked softly, and she nodded.

“I caught myself after a few seconds before I could go any further, but do you know what the worst part is? I _liked_ it. Even in just those few seconds, I felt so powerful, so in control. Does that make me _good_ , Zuko?” She wiped at her face angrily. “How am I any different from Azula or Ozai?”

“Because you stopped yourself,” Zuko said, and she looked up in surprise.

“What?”

“You realized that it was wrong, and you stopped it.”

She stared at him, and he sighed. “Look…” he put a hand on her shoulder. 

“I have some experience with this, okay? I’ve done bad things in the past, but I’ve paid for them, and it doesn’t mean I’m a bad person today.” He winced. “At least I hope I’m not.”

“You’re not,” Katara said swiftly.

He smiled down at her. “Then why are you being harder on yourself than you are on me?”

His hand was stroking softly up and down her arm. She nearly shivered at the sensation but couldn’t bring herself to draw away from him. She shook her head.

“But it’s not just something I did, Zuko. My bloodbending...it's like this darkness that lives inside of me, and it scares me, and I wish I could get rid of it, but I _can't_."

The tears were back in earnest now. She scrubbed at her face, but they refused to stop falling, and suddenly, it seemed as though Zuko could take it no longer. He stepped forward and, in a single motion, gathered her into his arms. She clung to him. Her tears were probably staining his tunic, but he only held her tighter.

“Katara—“ she heard him murmur. “I don’t have all the answers. But I promise that, no matter what you say, you are not a bad person. And there’s nothing you could ever do that will stop me from always having your back.”

She nodded and stepped back to look up at him.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to spring this all on you, especially now.”

He smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “It’s okay,” he said softly. “I don’t mind.”

She smiled back at him, and they stared at each other for a long time. He had that same shy, fond look in his eyes from that morning. Her smile slowly slid off her face, and she looked at him wide-eyed and blinking, her heart pounding in her ears. His eyes were like amber pools that she could drown herself in.

Suddenly though, he looked away, clearing his throat awkwardly. "You should get some sleep," he muttered. "I'll wake you up when it's time to go."

Katara nodded distractedly and walked over to the bed, feeling as if she had just been wrenched blinking and confused out of a dream. She laid down on the mattress and stared back at Zuko, her hands cradled under her head like a pillow.

"Go to sleep," he whispered again, and his face was the last thing she saw before she drifted off into unconsciousness.

A few hours later, she awoke to a hand on her shoulder and a dark room, the only light coming through the window in the form of a crescent moon. Zuko was dressed again in black stealth clothes, and he handed a pair to Katara as she sat up and ran a hand distractedly through her hair.

"It's time," he said.

They slipped silently out of the window and pulled themselves up onto the roof of the inn. The night was dark but clear, and an ocean of stars winked at them from overhead. Once Katara had straightened up, Zuko pointed to a row of houses that led in a straight line from the inn to the very edge of the jungle. 

“We can jump from roof to roof all the way until the outer wall of the city,” he explained. “Luckily, people on lookout almost always forget to look up.”

Katara rolled her shoulders in anticipation. “Okay. Lead the way.”

“Remember, light footsteps,” Zuko said. “And stay close.”

With that, he crept over to the edge of the roof, and, silent as a cat, leaped over the several feet of open air and onto the roof of the house next to them. Without a word, Katara followed him.

Crouched low, they raced over the rooftops. In any other situation, Katara may have thought their actions were a bit excessive, but the ever-present threat of a trap made her glad for their extra precautions. They hadn’t run into any problems so far, but still, they couldn't forget that there was someone out there who wanted Zuko dead.

They reached the last house in the row, right on the edge of the jungle. Zuko shimmied down the chimney and landed lightly on top of a rain barrel. Katara did the same and gratefully took his offered hand as she jumped the additional few feet onto the ground. 

Once she had landed, he turned towards the jungle and began walking along the edge of the trees, occasionally dropping low to the ground and feeling the soil with his fingers.

“What are you doing?” Katara whispered. 

“The villagers don’t likely go into the jungle very often,” he replied in a low voice. “They have the river to fish on, and there’s not enough space between the trees to really hunt effectively. But there has to be a game trail or something nearby that my mother could use to get to the village."

Katara nodded. She trailed behind him, watching him as he searched for signs of a path, his face a blank mask of concentration. She wondered how a Fire Nation prince, now Fire Lord, came to know so much about stealth and tracking. Maybe it was during his banishment?

After a few minutes, Zuko paused, his hand near a damp patch of earth by an old rotting stump. He waved Katara over and pointed to the ground, where she could just make out the shape of a tiger-monkey print embedded in the mud, next to what was unmistakably a human footprint. He raised his hand, and her eyes followed to a narrow gap in between a row of saplings, which she would have never noticed otherwise.

“Do you think it’s really her?” Katara asked in a breathless voice.

He squared his shoulders. “Only one way to find out.”

They followed the game trail for several hours, the light of the moon as their only guide. Soon, they were deep within the jungle, and Katara began to wonder if they would ever find Ursa, or if she was even here. But every so often, Zuko would find a print or see something else that excited him, and he kept reassuring her that this had to be the right way. Her heart pounded in her chest, not only from the elevation but also from nerves, as she half expected someone to jump out of the trees and ambush them at any time. She kept her hand over her waterskin and comforted herself by reasoning that if anything were to happen, at least she would have Zuko’s back.

Finally, as the sky began to lighten, they smelled it: the unmistakable scent of a cooking fire. Zuko turned back to her, his eyes wide, and she had to grip his shoulders to steady him.

“Let’s be careful about this, okay?” she whispered. “I’ll go in front, so if it’s a trap meant for you, they’ll see me first, and you can cover me from behind.”

“And if it’s not a trap?” Zuko rasped.

She smiled and squeezed his shoulder. “Then get ready to introduce me to your mother, Zuko.”

He swallowed nervously, and they got in position and started to creep towards the unseen campsite. But as they got closer, Katara realized that it wasn’t a campsite at all. A small wooden house emerged out of the trees, nestled in the middle of a large clearing and surrounded by rows and rows of herbs and flower beds. A small stream flowed past the right side of the house, and smoke was coming out of the chimney. 

As Katara watched, the door to the house swung open. She quickly put her hand over her waterskin but froze as she realized that the person who had come out of the house was a beautiful woman with long black hair and dressed in a simple rust-colored tunic.

Katara glanced at Zuko, whose eyes were as wide as saucers. He seemed to be unable to speak, silently drinking in the scene before him.

“Is that her?” Katara asked softly, and he nodded, not taking his eyes off his mother’s face.

She took his hand, and they stepped forward tentatively together into the clearing. Katara braced herself for an unseen attack, as now would the time for it, but nothing happened. She let out a sigh of relief. Maybe this wasn’t a trap after all.

Ursa was kneeling in the garden, her back turned away from them as they walked towards her. Then, with only one flower bed in between them, Zuko dropped Katara’s hand and awkwardly cleared his throat.

Ursa froze. She slowly rose to her feet and turned to face them, a gardening spade clutched in her hand. But as her eyes fell on them, she let out a shuddering gasp, and the spade fell to the ground. Her hands flew to her mouth, and her beautiful amber eyes, so much like Zuko’s, Katara realized, filled with tears.

“Zuko?” she whispered as if she could hardly believe what she was seeing.

Tears were dripping from Zuko’s own eyes, and he shook as if an electric current were going through him.

His voice was rasping but full of emotion as he answered back.

“Mom…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	7. Chapter 7

"Would you like some tea?” Ursa asked. She moved around the kitchen, looking flustered, and eventually found her tea kettle lying on top of a side table. “I’ll just go put this water on to boil and—"

She stopped, as Zuko had taken the kettle out of her hands. Within seconds, steam was pouring from its spout. Ursa smiled.

“I’ve forgotten how useful it is to have a fire bender in the house,” she said. 

Zuko blushed. Standing facing each other, he and Ursa were practically the same height. It must have been an odd feeling for him, Katara thought, seeing as the last time he had seen his mother he had only been ten years old. He nodded once and quickly sat down at the little wooden table in the center of the room. After a beat, Katara did the same.

Ursa poured the water over the tea leaves and brought the cups over to the table. She smiled at Katara as she handed her a cup. “So, my dear,” she said with a pointed look at Zuko. “I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced.”

Zuko looked embarrassed. “Right,” he muttered. “Mom, this is Katara, daughter of Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe. We…we fought together at the end of the war.”

Katara nodded. “I’m very pleased to meet you,” she told Ursa. “Zuko’s told me so much about you.”

Ursa inclined her head in return. “Water Tribe, hmm? I never imagined that my son would one day be friends with a girl from the Southern Water Tribe.”

Katara grinned. “I’m not sure Zuko ever imagined it either,” she said. Zuko shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“Yes, well, a lot of things have changed since you left,” he told Ursa quietly.

There was a slightly uncomfortable silence after that. Katara glanced between mother and son, both of whom were looking vaguely embarrassed, as if they knew there were things they should be talking about but didn’t quite know how to broach the subject. All of a sudden, she felt like an intruder.

Ursa sighed. “A lot has changed,” she admitted. She reached out with one hand and gently touched the scar on Zuko’s face. He flinched but didn’t back away. 

“Did he do this to you?” she asked, a quiet fury in her eyes.

Zuko avoided her gaze, staring at the wood of the table in front of him. He nodded, a single downward motion of his head. The sudden pain and anger on Ursa’s face made Katara’s breath catch, but she only stroked softly over Zuko’s cheek, silently begging her son to look her in the eye.

“I’m so sorry,” she murmured. “I—I never should have left you alone with that monster.”

Zuko shook his head, capturing his mother’s hand in one of his own and guiding it down to rest on the table between them.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said hoarsely. “He’s dead now. He can’t hurt anyone else ever again.”

Ursa sat back in her chair, looking surprised but quietly resigned. “So be it,” she muttered.

Zuko stared at her. “Do you know what’s been happening these past eleven years? Did you hear or see anything from the capital? Anything at all?”

Ursa avoided his eyes. “The information we get here is sparse, but yes, I’ve heard things. News. Rumors.”

“So you know that Father banished me when I was thirteen years old just for speaking out of turn in a war meeting,” Zuko said. “You know that the Avatar returned and defeated Father, and I betrayed the Fire Nation to help him do it. You know that Azula’s been rotting away in a mental hospital for the past five years and that, for some reason, I was chosen to be the new Fire Lord. You know that—“

“Zuko...” Katara said quietly. The look on his face concerned her, and it looked like it was starting to scare Ursa. He released her hand and sat back in his chair, letting his breath out in a long sigh. 

“Why didn’t you come back for me?” he asked in a broken voice.

Tears were shining again in Ursa’s eyes. “Oh Zuko…” she murmured, but Zuko shook his head.

“If you were scared of Ozai, why wouldn’t you come back once he was locked away in jail? I searched for you everywhere after the war,” he rasped. “I sent men to every city in the Fire Nation, I put up posters, I begged you to come home—” His voice caught, and he swallowed and looked away. “Did you not want to come back?”

“No!” Ursa said quickly. “Of course I wanted to come back sweetheart, but it’s not that simple. I wish it was.”

Zuko leaned forward again. “Then why didn’t you?” he ground out in a low voice.

Ursa was looking desperately sad, and even, Katara thought, a little scared. 

“You won’t want to hear it,” she whispered.

“Try me,” Zuko said harshly. Katara nudged him with her elbow, and he closed his eyes, relenting. “Please, Mom,” he said in a calmer voice. “I need to know.”

Ursa let out a long sigh. “I—I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to tell you this so soon, but I suppose there’s no way around it now. Alright. I will tell you the story of what has happened to me ever since I left the royal palace.”

Zuko slowly sat back in his chair, crossing his arms. Katara watched him anxiously. But he was silent, so Ursa let out a deep shuddering breath and began to speak.

“I grew up in a little town on an island only a couple of miles north from this one. We were always told to stay away from Himitsu as children. The mountain that the village is built beside is said to be cursed, and some say that if you get too close, you can hear the voices of dark spirits calling out from the rock. The only people who still live here are hardened locals and outsiders who don’t want to be found. So when I…left the palace, I figured that this would be the perfect place to hide.

I knew that Ozai would probably come after me one day. Keeping me alive was a rare act of mercy, but it also made me a loose end. So I took on a new name and set up an herbalist shop in Himitsu's main square. I always did love tending my garden at the palace, and this seemed like a way to do something useful with my life, even in exile.”

She closed her eyes, looking pained. “It was…very lonely,” she said. “I missed you and your sister terribly, and I didn’t think I would ever see you again. But one day, a customer came into the shop, looking for a treatment to help with a burn.” She glanced down at her teacup, hiding a small smile. “His name was Lian. He was a loner, an outsider like me. We started talking, and we discovered that we enjoyed each other’s company much more than either of us expected. He started making up excuses just to come back to the shop and see me, and eventually, we just…fell in love.”

Katara risked a glance over at Zuko. His expression was stony-faced, but he was quiet and seemed to be listening attentively to Ursa’s story.

Ursa cleared her throat awkwardly and continued. “One day, around eight years ago, Lian told me that he had noticed some suspicious-looking men watching my shop and making note of my movements. I was terrified, convinced that Ozai’s henchmen had come for me at last. Lian promised me that he would do whatever it took to protect me. The men watched me that entire week. Lian stayed close, always just out of sight in the backroom whenever I had a customer. Then one day, one of the men came into the shop. I signaled Lian and tried not to panic as the man pretended to be interested in one of my tinctures. Then, as I reached for a bundle of herbs on a shelf just out of reach, I felt something puncture the side of my neck, and I fell unconscious. 

I awoke several hours later in Lian’s cabin deep within the jungle. He explained to me how he had snuck up behind the assassin and hit him in the head with one of my pewter cauldrons. But he was too slow. I was already hit with the poisonous dart. Thankfully, the assassin’s aim was slightly off, otherwise, I would have been killed instantly. Instead, I was only unconscious and paralyzed from the shirshu dart. The assassin, however, was dead. Lian’s aim had been a little too true. He had hit the man in the temple, inadvertently killing him instantly.

Working fast, Lian hid the body and carried me out the back door into the jungle. Thankfully, he knew enough about herbs from what I taught him to try to slow the dart’s poison. I’ve been living here in hiding ever since, in case whoever it was who tried to kill me decided comes back. But I couldn’t abandon my patients, so every couple of months, Lian or I would secretly go down to the village to leave some herbs for those who needed them most.

Over the years, we’ve found more herbs that slow the progress of my poison, but we’ve never been able to stop it entirely.” She frowned. “I still get…seizures, sometimes, that temporarily paralyze me. The poison is now incorporated into my bloodstream, and once it reaches my brain, I will die.”

She fell silent. Zuko was looking horrified, and he seemed to be at a loss for words. Katara turned back to Ursa, her head spinning, even as her heart cried out in pain and sympathy for Zuko.

“What-what happened to Lian?” she asked. “Does he still live with you?”

Tears filled Ursa’s eyes once more. “He…he passed away,” she whispered, “about a year ago. A heart attack. Nothing I could do to stop it. And every day since, I’ve wondered if I’m next, if when I go to sleep at night I won’t wake up the next morning. For years, but now more than ever, it’s felt like I’ve been living on borrowed time." She placed her hands over Zuko’s, which had started to shake around his teacup. “So you see, sweetheart, I couldn’t go back. I was too weak, too sick, and too scared. And I couldn’t put you through the pain of losing your mother again.”

Zuko shook his head. “No…” he muttered. “That can’t be right…we…we have to be able to do something.” He turned towards Katara. “Can you heal her?” he asked. The wolfish look was back in his eyes again. “Katara is a waterbender with healing powers,” he explained to his mother. “She’ll be able to heal you, I know it.”

Katara frowned. “Zuko, I’m not so sure…” she said slowly. “This is much more complicated than healing a few scrapes and bruises. I don’t know anything about extracting poisons from the bloodstream. I don’t know if it’s even possible.”

Zuko wrenched a hand free from his mother’s grip and grasped Katara’s forearm. “Please,” he said hoarsely. “You healed me when I took a bolt of lightning straight to the chest, which should have been impossible. You have to try.”

She hated the look of fear and desperation in his eyes, so she swallowed down her doubts and nodded.

“Alright.” She turned to Ursa. “Are you okay with this?”

Ursa was also looking skeptical but gave her a small smile nonetheless. “I suppose it doesn’t hurt to try.”

Katara drew the water up out of her waterskin. Leaning forward, she placed her water-gloved hands on either side of Ursa’s head and reached out with her bending. Normally when she healed something, there was an external wound, something simple and straightforward to concentrate her energy on. Even with injuries beneath the surface, such as broken ribs, she could usually sense what part of the body needed to be healed and how to do so. But this poison was different. Other than a few scrapes and bruises, she couldn’t sense any discernible imperfections in Ursa’s body that needed healing. If the poison really was in her bloodstream, there was one other thing she could try, though the thought of it scared her. But Zuko was looking at her with such an expression of desperate hope that she felt like she had to try.

Heart racing in anticipation, she reached for the sensation of Ursa’s blood. She comforted herself with the knowledge that it wasn’t a full moon, so she couldn’t bend it even if she wanted to. But at the very least, she should be able to sense if anything was wrong.

She felt for the maze of veins, arteries, and capillaries, all united by a steady heartbeat. And right there, in a notch under Ursa’s jaw, she felt _something_. But unlike the poison she had saved Zuko from, this almost seemed to be a _part_ of Ursa. She was right, the poison was integrated into her bloodstream, and if Katara tried to take it out, Ursa would lose too much blood and die anyway.

The sensation of feeling Ursa’s blood was starting to make Katara feel sick. She withdrew her hands and shook her head sadly at Zuko.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I can’t.”

He closed his eyes, and Katara felt as though her heart had been cleaved in two. His hands started to shake again.

“Were you able to see where the poison was?” Ursa asked her softly, and Katara nodded. 

“It’s right at the base of your skull. A few more inches, and it will reach your brainstem.” She swallowed. “You’ve managed to keep it at bay for so long, but…”

“But not forever,” Ursa said sadly. “If you’re right, which I’m sure you are, even with the treatments I’ve been giving myself, it seems like I only have a few months left.”

Zuko stood up suddenly, the dishes on the table rattling with his movement. He swept out of the room, and Katara heard the front door slam shut behind him.

Ursa was crying again, the tears rolling down her beautiful porcelain face like raindrops on a windowpane.

“I was afraid he would take it like this,” she said quietly. 

“Is this why you didn’t go back?” Katara asked her.

Ursa nodded. “I didn’t want to hurt him again. He already assumed I was dead. I thought that staying away would be…easier.”

“He would have wanted it anyway,” Katara said. “He would have done anything, if only to see you again one last time.” She stared down at her now cold cup of tea, but her thoughts were hundreds of miles away, shrouded in ice and snow and falling ash.

Ursa nodded. “I know,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”

Katara stood up from the table. “I don’t think I’m the one you should be apologizing to,” she said coldly and left the kitchen to go find Zuko.

He was sitting by the little stream beside the house, his head in his hands. A large black mark was still smoking on the side of a tree next to him. As Katara got closer, she realized that he was crying.

“Oh, Zuko…” she murmured. 

She dropped to her knees behind him and gently rested her forehead against his back. His shoulders shook beneath her cheek, and she stroked soothingly up and down his arm. 

Eventually, he raised his head and let out a deep, shuddering breath.

“Why does this always happen to me?” she heard him say.

She lifted her head and turned to face him fully. “What do you mean?”

His good eye was red and puffy as he scowled at the ground in front of him. “Every time I think that my life is actually starting to go okay for once, something like this happens. Some horrible trick, some cruel twist of fate.” He swallowed. “I should have seen it coming.”

“Zuko, you couldn’t have expected this,” Katara said. “No one could.”

He shook his head. “But I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. I tried so, so hard not to. ‘It’s probably a lie’, I told myself, 'or at worst, a trap'. But I just couldn’t help myself. And the closer we got, the more I dared to hope that maybe, just maybe, I could have a mother again.”

“She’s still here,” Katara whispered, trying and failing to hold back tears of her own. “You still have her, at least for a little while.”

Zuko let out a humorless laugh. “But that’s just it, isn’t it? If she had only come back sooner, I would have had her for so much longer. But now we’re out of time.” He paused and stared into the water of the stream in front of them. “It’s just…I’m _angry_ with her, Katara. I can’t help it. Is that wrong?” He raised his head to look at her, his eyes asking for absolution.

Katara shook her head. “No,” she said quietly. “I get it. She shouldn’t have stayed away.”

Zuko wiped a hand over his eyes. “What am I supposed to do now?” he asked. “Because I—I can’t lose her again, Katara. I’ve had to make peace with her dying two times already, and I can’t do it again, I _can’t_ —"

He broke down and started to cry again. Katara wrapped her arms around him and rested his head on her shoulder. He sobbed into her neck as she stroked his hair, all the while feeling absolutely helpless to ease his pain.

“I don’t know,” she murmured, tears of her own falling onto his hair. “I wish I could tell you, Zuko. But spirits, I don’t know.”

After a while, they went back inside. Zuko was exhausted from the events of the day, so when Ursa offered him the bed in the spare room, he took it without complaint, leaving Katara and Ursa alone.

Neither of them really knew what to say to each other. Ursa asked after Azula’s condition and seemed troubled by the news of her current mental state, but Katara could tell that she was hesitant to discuss her fears for her daughter with a strange girl from the Southern Water Tribe whom she had just met. Finally, after a long period of awkward silence, Ursa left to go sit by Zuko’s bedside and Katara went back out into the garden, hoping that it would help clear her head of her turbulent thoughts and emotions.

It was just before sunset. Katara's dark skin glowed in the rosy twilight, the clearing around her bathed in a pink and purple hue. She knelt down next to the stream, in almost the exact same spot where Zuko was earlier, and stared into the water. The face that stared back at her felt like the face of a stranger. It was still the face of a nineteen-year-old girl, but her eyes were darker and sadder than she remembered, her expression serious, hardened by the war and the trials of the past five years.

 _The face of a blood bender_ , she thought suddenly.

She swiped her hand through the water, breaking up the reflection, and scrambled to her feet.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she raised her hands, and a tendril of water snaked up out of the stream and fashioned itself into a water whip. She raised it over her head and began to move through a series of offensive moves. Then, turning in a circle, she started to see that Zuko was standing right behind her. He parried her water whip with a fire block just before it hit him, and the water dissolved into a cloud of steam around them.

“Sorry,” he rasped. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s okay,” Katara said, putting the cap securely back on her waterskin. She took a step back to look at him. “How are you feeling?”

Zuko sighed. “I don’t know,” he said roughly. 

“Is there anything I can do?”

He studied her for a second. “Actually, there might be. But you won’t like it.”

She raised her eyebrows. “What is it?”

He turned away from her, faced out towards the clearing in front of them. 

“I need you to go to the capital city and bring back Azula.”

Katara stared at him. “What? Are you serious?”

He turned back to her. The look on his face was sad but resolute. “Yes. She—she deserves to see her mother again. One last time.”

“Zuko—" Katara murmured. “I can’t argue with that, but I also just can’t leave you here by yourself! What if something happens to you?”

Zuko bristled. “I can take care of myself,” he said sharply.

Katara sighed. “I know you can. But if something happens, if the assassins come back, I won’t be able to protect you. And how am I supposed to get Azula out of the capital in the first place? What do you want me to do, break her out of prison?”

Zuko frowned. “No. I’ll write a letter for the doctor telling him that I want Azula relocated for her safety, in case the assassins come back. Everyone still thinks I’m at a safe house in the mountains, remember? You would just pretend to be the one to take her there.”

Katara shook her head. “I don’t know…”

But Zuko surprised her by reaching forward and grasping her by the shoulders. Her heart started to beat faster as he looked at her with wide, desperate eyes.

“Please, Katara,” he said softly. “I can’t leave her alone again. And I know you hate Azula, but this may be the only chance for my mother to see her again before…” He trailed off, averting his gaze.

Katara stared at his hand on her arm, the contrast of his slim, pale fingers against her dark skin.

“Alright,” she murmured, and he looked up at her in surprise. “I’ll do it,” she told him. “For Ursa. And for you.”

He let out a sigh of relief and released her. She felt the echo of his touch on her skin as if he were a hot stove that had just burned her.

“Thank you,” he whispered, then went back into the house, leaving Katara alone in the quickly fading twilight.

Early the next morning, Katara and Zuko went back to the small clearing where they had left the war balloon.

Zuko was quiet, even more so than usual, and seemed almost distracted as he helped Katara prep the balloon for takeoff.

“Make sure you keep feeding the fire,” he told her as he climbed out of the basket, “and don’t fly too close to the ocean, you’ll weigh down the fabric. Oh, and remember that Azula always lies. Don’t let her get to you.”

Katara crossed her arms. “I can handle Azula. It’s you I’m worried about.”

He blushed. “I’ll be fine,” he muttered. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

Katara gave him a small smile. “Too late,” she told him. “I’ve been doing it for the past five years. I’m not about to stop now.”

He seemed almost speechless by her admission, as if he couldn’t believe her words. A rush of affection overcame her, and, on an impulse, she stepped forward and kissed him lightly on his scarred cheek. He froze at the contact and stared at her with wide eyes as she stepped back to look at him.

Feeling self-conscious, she ducked her head and turned to go, but Zuko grabbed her hand.

“Wait,” he said softly. “Katara…”

She had never seen that look in his eyes before, a mix of surprise and tenderness and something else that made her panic even as her heart cried out to stay with him. She squeezed his hand and tried to give him a reassuring smile. 

“I’ll see you in a few days,” she told him, and, heart and head pounding, climbed up into the war balloon.

His eyes never left her face as the balloon expanded with hot air, and the basket slowly started to rise up off the ground.

“Be safe,” he called, and she nodded to let him know she had heard him.

“Yeah,” she whispered. “You too.”

The balloon rose up out of the trees, and Katara turned her gaze to the sparkling blue horizon, feeling as if she had left a part of herself down in the clearing below.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thanks for being patient with me, life has been kind of crazy this past month but I'm hoping I'll have more time to write during the holidays.
> 
> I hope you don't hate me too much for this chapter. Don't worry- the story isn't over yet!
> 
> Thanks for reading!!


	8. Chapter 8

The red door stared at Katara with something like a warning.

When she was little, she would sometimes help Sokka scan the waters of the South Pole Sea for signs of Fire Nation patrol ships. Their blood-red flags splashed against the clear blue sky were always harbingers of death and destruction, and she wondered if the red door to Azula’s prison-hospital meant the same fate. 

She raised a shaky hand and knocked twice on the door. A voice called out “enter,” and she opened the door and stepped into the hospital with a feeling of gathering dread.

As she entered the main hall, Doctor Hiroshi looked up from his little desk in the corner. He raised his eyebrows at the sight of her.

“Lady Katara!” he said. “This is a surprise, I thought you had left the city long ago with the Fire Lord.”

“I did,” Katara told him. “But he’s sent me back with some new instructions regarding the Princess Azula.” 

She handed him the letter Zuko had given her, signed and stamped with the official royal seal, indicating that the letter's contents were a command, not a request.

The doctor’s eyebrows rose even higher as he read the letter.

“He wants to relocate the princess to a safe house in the mountains?” he asked her.

Katara nodded. “He thinks it’ll be safer for her there, especially with one of the assassins still at large.”

“Hmm,” was all the doctor said to that. Katara could tell he was displeased, but he at least had the good sense not to voice his reservations aloud.

“He’d like for her to leave immediately,” Katara added. “Today, if possible.”

Doctor Hiroshi got up slowly from his desk. “Very well,” he told her. “We will make all the necessary arrangements. Come back at nightfall, and we will be ready.”

  
A few hours later, after getting something to eat and exploring a bit of the city, Katara made her way back to the hospital. The doctor met her outside with a grim expression.

“Before you see her,” he said in a low voice. “I think I should update you on the princess’s condition.”

“Is it better or worse than the last time I saw her?” Katara asked. 

Hiroshi sighed. “She suffered a major setback after the assassination attempt, but thankfully we’ve started to see some improvement. She is not always the most...present, and often ignores us in favor of talking to herself. But don’t let that knowledge allow you to let your guard down. At other times, she is quite lucid, and she may attempt to escape if given the opportunity.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little glass bottle filled with a clear liquid. 

“For that reason, I am giving you a supply of the drug we use to suppress her fire bending abilities. Her current dosage should last for the next 24 hours, but after that…well, make sure you don’t forget to give her this.”

Katara took the bottle from him carefully. She hated the thought of suppressing someone’s bending, but she also knew that Azula would probably jump at the chance to kill her if given the opportunity. This was a way of ensuring that, no matter what happened, she would have the upper hand.

The red door to the hospital creaked open. Azula walked outside, her hands bound together with two burly looking guards on either side of her. She was even thinner and more withdrawn than Katara remembered, and her amber eyes had a glassy look to them. As they got closer, Katara realized that Azula was muttering to herself. She caught the words “red carnation” and “white lotus” and turned to the doctor, a question in her eyes.

Doctor Hiroshi cleared his throat uncomfortably. “She was playing a game of Pai Sho with General Iroh when the attack happened. We often hear muttering certain moves or strategies from the game. I think it is a coping mechanism, a safe place she can retreat to in her mind when everything becomes too overwhelming.”

A stab of pity went through Katara, almost against her will. _What happened to her?_ she wondered.

“Lieutenant Toru and Captain Rin will escort you back to your war balloon,” the doctor said. “Safe travels, Lady Katara. And good luck.”

And with that, he turned and went back inside the hospital, leaving Katara alone with the mad princess and her guards. 

Azula raised her head to glare at Katara. “What are you doing here, water peasant?” 

“Silence, princess,” one of the guards said sharply.

Katara crossed her arms. “I’m taking you to a safe house, Azula,” she said patiently, as if speaking to a small child.

Azula cocked her head, her eyebrows scrunched together in suspicion. 

“Where?” she demanded.

“I’ll tell you on the war balloon. Come on.” 

Katara turned on her heel and began walking down the dark cobblestone street, the guards leading Azula close behind her.

  
As the guard called Toru helped Azula climb into the war balloon, the other guard, Rin, pulled Katara aside. 

“Are you sure you don’t want us to come with you, my lady?” he asked. “Azula is technically powerless, but remember, it was her intelligence that made her such a fearsome soldier, not just her fire bending. She is still quite dangerous.”

Katara frowned at him. “I thank you for your concern, Captain Rin, but I am perfectly capable of handling the princess myself. Remember, I was the one who finally captured her in the first place. The Fire Lord expects me to accomplish this task myself, and I will see that it is done.”

The soldier’s mouth set in a thin line. Katara could tell that he disapproved, but even he did not dare criticize a Fire Lord’s direct command. Truthfully, Katara would have felt better with the soldiers along with her, but since she wasn't actually taking Azula to a safe house, she knew it was impossible.

“Alright,” Rin said, somewhat reluctantly. “Safe travels, my lady.”

Katara nodded her thanks and climbed into the war balloon. Azula was sitting on the far side of the basket, her hands chained to the side of the balloon by a length of thick, sturdy rope. She watched through narrowed eyes as Katara stoked the fire in the furnace, and the balloon began to rise up off the ground. As soon as they were out of earshot of the guards, she spoke:

“You're not really taking me to a safe house, are you?"

Katara paused. For a moment, she debated lying and only telling her the truth when they reached Himitsu. But she knew Zuko wouldn't approve, and something inside of her made her decide to tell Azula the whole truth right there and then.

“No," Katara said quietly. "Zuko and I have found your mother. I'm taking you to see her."

A thousand emotions flashed across Azula’s face, but she quickly hid them behind a cold, blank mask. 

“You’re lying,” she sneered. “My mother has been dead for years.”

“Not quite,” Katara said. “She’s alive, but won’t be for too much longer. Zuko sent me to get you so you could at least get a chance to say goodbye.”

Azula’s golden eyes narrowed into flints. “I don’t believe you,” she said. “I bet you came up with this little lie just so you could get me away from my doctors and finally kill me. You were too cowardly to do it last time, but now...you can make it look like an accident and still stay in the good graces of Zuko. But it won’t matter. He’ll still cast you aside one day, just like he did with Mai."

Katara’s hands tightened over the balloon's railing, but she was determined not to take the bait. Zuko’s words came back to her: _Azula always lies. Don’t let her get to you._

“Think what you want,” she told her. “I really don’t care.”

She turned her gaze to the dark horizon. Behind her, Azula started muttering about Pai Sho again. 

They flew through the night. 

Eventually, Azula fell asleep on top of her bedroll, and Katara was glad of the silence. The princess looked so much younger in her sleep. Sometimes, it was hard to remember that she was only nineteen years old, the same age as Katara. Azula had always looked older than her age, but war, madness, and five years of imprisonment had left an additional mark. Now though, with her face peaceful, unmarked by any scowl or smirk, she almost looked like a younger version of Ursa.

As the first rays of light peeked over the horizon, Azula finally stirred. She shifted somewhat uncomfortably into a seated position (as her hands were still bound) and blinked up at Katara.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“A little under halfway to our destination,” Katara said, keeping her answer intentionally vague. “Only about two more days left.”

Azula stared at her. “Until you kill me?” she said.

Katara rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to kill you, Azula." _As much as I may want to_ , she silently added. “Like I said, I’m taking you to see your mother, and so help me if you ask again—"

“What does she look like?” Azula said, interrupting her.

“What?”

“What. Does. She. Look. Like?” Azula repeated in a purposefully slow, mocking voice. “Come on, if you really have met her, you should at least be able to tell me that.”

Katara sighed. “She’s…very beautiful,” she said slowly. “Long black hair, amber eyes, pale, almost translucent skin. You have the same chin as her. And her house is surrounded by flowers, rows of pink and purple peonies and fire lilies.”

Azula seemed dumbstruck. “You’re telling the truth,” she said quietly.

Katara raised her eyebrows. “Why would I lie?”

“I—" Azula swallowed. “I don’t know.” She turned her head to stare out over the ocean with an expression on her face that Katara had never seen before. Shock, confusion, and something that looked a little bit like hope.

Several hours passed after that in silence. Azula had finally stopped muttering about Pai Sho strategies, which Katara was grateful for, but she still seemed to be lost in her thoughts as the balloon floated over the silvery ocean and the sun sank lower in the sky. 

When Katara offered her a dumpling for their midday meal, Azula took it from her with wary eyes, as if she were contemplating something.

“You could do it, you know,” she said quietly.

Katara turned away from her towards the furnace, intending to stoke the fire. “Do what?” she asked.

“Kill me,” Azula said simply.

Katara sighed and shook her head, trying to ignore her.

“You could toss me over the side of this war balloon right now, and no one would be the wiser,” Azula continued. “I know at least a part of you wants to. So why won’t you? Are you afraid?”

Katara glared at her. “I’m not afraid of you. I hate you.”

Azula chuckled. “It always does seem to be one or the other. But you still haven’t answered my question. Why are you helping me?”

“I—because I promised Zuko I would.”

“Ah,” Azula said, her golden eyes boring softly into Katara’s own. “There it is.” She shifted on top of her bedroll and tilted her head, smiling at Katara unpleasantly.

“You know, you remind me of Mai, five years ago at the Boiling Rock. You weren’t there, of course, but I’m sure Zuko or your idiot brother has told you what happened.”

Katara frowned. “What about it?”

“Do you know what she said to me after her _stupid_ , cowardly betrayal? ‘I love Zuko more than I fear you.’ I didn’t understand what she meant at the time, but now I think I do. You love Zuko more than you hate me.”

Katara’s heart skipped a beat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Azula let out a cold laugh. “Oh, I think you do, water peasant. You can’t help it. It’s so _easy_ to love Zuko,” she spat. “And so much harder to love a monster like me.”

“Azula…” Katara said softly, but Azula’s eyes had already turned glassy, her arms crossed over her chest, holding the rope that bound her hands in a vice-like grip.

“Jasmine three spaces up,” she muttered. “Rose two spaces left… Wheel turns the board…”

Katara turned slowly back to the furnace. The flames almost seemed to mock her now, and the vial of the drug from Doctor Hiroshi grew heavy in her pocket. She had been planning to slip a dose into Azula’s dinner that night, but something about their conversation just now made her pause. 

_She doesn’t trust me_ , she realized. _That’s why she keeps thinking I’m lying, or that I’m trying to kill her._

Not that she blamed Azula, of course. She would probably do the same if their situations were reversed. But somehow, her admission that she thought of herself as a "monster" made Katara feel almost sorry for her. She didn’t want to lead Azula to her dying mother drugged and chained up like a criminal (even if technically she was one). She needed to do something to show Azula that she trusted her, and to convince her to trust Katara in return.

She walked over to the side of the war balloon where Azula sat and pulled out the little glass vial from her pocket.

“Do you know what this is?” she asked. Azula seemed to shake briefly out of her reverie and eyed the glass bottle warily.

“It means you’re about to drug me again, doesn’t it,” she said in a flat voice.

“Think again,” Katara said. She walked over to the side of the basket, ignoring the little voice in her head that told her she was doing something incredibly stupid, and dropped the vial down into the water below.

When she turned back, Azula was looking dumbstruck.

“What was _that_?” she managed to sputter out.

“A sign of faith,” Katara said quietly. “I've chosen to trust that you won’t try to kill me once your bending comes back. You won’t try to escape either,” she said, as Azula opened her mouth to speak. “I know that, despite what you may say otherwise, you desperately want to see your mother again, and I’m the only one who knows where to find her.”

Azula smirked. “And if I do try to kill you, at least we can fight on a level playing field.”

Katara leveled an icy stare at her. “And if you do try to kill me, I’ll defeat you, just as I did five years ago in that palace courtyard.”

The smirk slowly slid off Azula’s face and was replaced by an expression in her eyes that looked almost like respect. She nodded.

“Okay.”

As the light started to fade, Katara re-directed their course to a small island, close to the spot where she and Zuko had stopped on their first journey to Himitsu. This island was little more than a collection of dark volcanic rocks covered in green lichen, surrounded by a tiny black sand beach where Katara landed the war balloon.

“Are you really going to leave me in here all night?” Azula asked as Katara started unloading their packs and bedrolls.

She hesitated. The smart thing would be to keep Azula tied up inside of the war balloon. But then again, as soon as her fire bending came back, she would be able to burn through the ropes like they were nothing. Katara had made her choice to trust Azula, and now she had to live with it. She climbed into the balloon and untied Azula’s hands. 

“Make yourself useful and help me set up camp,” she muttered. "And stay quiet, we're trying to keep a low profile."

Azula clutched her wrists, wincing at the places where the rope had rubbed against her skin, but to Katara’s surprise, said nothing and simply followed her out of the war balloon to help unload their supplies.

They made camp against the side of the cliffs, wanting some protection from the wind if nothing else. Katara started a small fire and began making some rice for their dinner. Azula stared into the flames almost longingly.

“Is it coming back?” Katara asked her, feeling curious in spite of herself.

Azula nodded, her eyes still on the fire. “I can feel it, at the very edge of my consciousness. Like the moment right before you wake up from a deep sleep. It’s been so long…”

She trailed off, and Katara felt another reluctant stab of pity. She tried to imagine what it would feel like to be without her water bending for over five years. The thought was horrifying. Aang hadn’t permanently taken Azula’s bending away like he had with Ozai, but the drug still essentially did the same thing. Even with all the horrible things Azula had done, she still wasn’t as bad as her father. Katara wondered if she really deserved the same punishment as him.

With a shake, Azula snapped out of her trance and glared across the fire at Katara. “Is that rice almost ready, water peasant?” she said. “Hurry up, I’m starving.”

With a sigh, Katara scooped some rice into a bowl and handed it to Azula.

 _Keep your guard up_ , she reminded herself. _Azula always lies. There’s still no telling what she’ll decide to do next._

A few hours later, Katara was staring into the fire, thinking about Zuko, when Azula suddenly stood up.

“It’s back,” she said excitedly.

She started walking quickly down the beach towards the ocean. Katara had to scramble to her feet to follow her.

“Azula!” she called. “What are you do—"

She stumbled backward as Azula raised her right arm and a bolt of blue lightning struck her hand. Laughing gleefully, she held the lightning in her palm for a moment, then shot it back out over the ocean, illuminating the entire beach in an electric blue light.

Katara’s heart was pounding, her chest heaving. She doubled over for a second, her hands on her knees, and felt like she was about to throw up. She closed her eyes, but even then, she could still see that terrible blue light singed into her eyelids. Finally, she straightened up and glared daggers at Azula.

“What was _that_?” she yelled, furious. “Spirits, doesn’t ‘keep a low profile’ mean anything to you?”

Azula turned back to her and sniffed. “We’re in the middle of nowhere,” she said defensively. “I highly doubt anyone saw it.” She sneered. “Just be glad I didn’t direct it at _you_.”

And Katara snapped. Drawing upon all her power, she lifted her hands, and the sea swirled under her movement, rising higher and higher to form a wave, eight, ten, twelve feet tall, poised to crash down right over Azula’s head.

She stepped forward so that she was only inches away from Azula’s face.

“One more word and I will drown you in this ocean right now, I swear on Tui and La.”

The two girls glared at each other for a long time, and Katara thought she would have to break her promise to Zuko right there and then, but finally, Azula stepped back and dropped her gaze, accepting defeat.

“You don’t like lightning,” she observed quietly.

Katara’s heart was still pounding in her ears, but she released the water and tried to will her breathing to go back to normal. 

“After what you did,” she muttered. “Can you blame me?" And she swept past Azula back to their campsite.

Azula was quiet for a moment as she followed her back.

“I suppose not,” she said eventually. “I’ve never really stopped to consider what it must look like on the other side.”

Katara leaned her back up against the rocks and stared at the princess. Now that her anger (and panic) was starting to fade, a question was forming in her mind, one that she always wondered but never thought she would get the opportunity to ask.

“Why did you do it?” 

Azula raised a sharp eyebrow. “Do what?”

Katara scowled. “You know what. Why did you try to kill me in that courtyard five years ago?”

Azula sighed. She stared into the fire, and for a moment, Katara thought that she would ignore the question. But eventually, she began to speak.

"To be honest, I barely remember anything from that day," she said quietly. "I don't think I wanted to _kill_ you, at least not consciously, but..." She paused and swiped a hand through the sand on the ground beside her. "...but Zuko took everything from me. My mother, Mai and Ty Lee, and now he wanted to take Father and my crown away from me as well. Everyone and everything that I ever cared about. And I saw how you rescued him that day at the Western Air Temple. You were his friend. So I guess I just wanted to take from him something that he cared about too.”

Her admission left Katara speechless. It was horrifying and terrible, but somehow, also desperately sad.

Azula shifted uncomfortably in the silence. “You can call me a monster, you know,” she muttered. “Everyone else already does. Monster. Murderer. Freak.”

“You’re not a murderer,” Katara said suddenly. She didn’t know why that, of all things, was what her brain had decided to say, but it seemed important to let Azula know.

Azula looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, if you're talking about the assassin, well, that was in self-defense! He would have killed you otherwise.”

Azula was looking at her strangely. “The assassin wasn’t for _me_ ,” she said slowly. “It was for Uncle Iroh. Thankfully, I realized what was going on just in time to stab the idiot in the eye with a butter knife." She sniffed. "Uncle’s been getting too soft in his retirement.”

Katara’s blood turned to ice. “You mean…the assassin didn't try to kill you?”

Azula rolled her eyes. “That is literally what I just said. Spirits, you water peasants are all so slow.”

But Katara’s thoughts were already racing. Who would want Azula alive but the rest of the royal family dead? Suddenly, she remembered the letter Zuko told her he had sent to King Kuei, trying to see if he would be able to help them with their questions about the poisoned wine. What was it that he said about him? 

_“He’s never been the most observant, even now with the Dai Li gone…”_

“Azula…” Katara said slowly, “I think I know who’s been trying to kill Zuko—" 

But she was interrupted by Azula shushing her suddenly.

“Quiet!” The princess said. “I think I heard something on the cliffs.”

The two girls stood up and faced the rocks. Katara’s hand went to her waterskin, and Azula held a small flame in each of her hands. They stood there, tensed and ready to fight, for several minutes, but nothing came at them out of the darkness.

Azula's shoulders slumped, and she let her flames go out with a small hiss. “I guess I imagined it,” she said. “The hospital has made me so jumpy, I’m sure it was just an animal, or—"

But Katara never heard the end of her sentence, because at that moment, she felt something hit the back of her head, and the entire world went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year, guys!! I hope you're all doing well and staying safe and healthy.
> 
> Thank you all so much for your patience! This chapter took a little longer for me to write, maybe because Azula is such a tricky character to nail down. I also wanted to say that these next few chapters may take a little bit longer in general just because there's so much going on in them lol. So get excited!! Lots of cool stuff to come.
> 
> Any guesses as to who attacked Katara and Azula just now? I've tried to give you hints in previous chapters, along with the pretty obvious one at the end here. See if you can go back and figure out who it is :)


	9. Chapter 9

Katara woke up slowly, her head pounding. She was surrounded by black obsidian, her hands chained to a wall by heavy stone shackles. Beside her, Azula groaned and shifted in her own restraints. It seemed like she was slipping in and out of consciousness.

The walls were lined with glowing green lanterns, and Katara was reminded of the dark stone tunnels underneath Lake Laogai. But this room was less familiar. In fact, the more she looked, the more Katara was convinced that they weren’t in a room at all, but rather, a cave somewhere deep underground. 

_You idiot_ , Katara berated herself. She couldn’t believe she had let her guard down enough to allow her and Azula to be captured. She had been so concerned with an attack from Azula herself that she hadn’t even stopped to consider someone else might want to attack the both of them too. And now, with Azula’s revelation that the assassin on the full moon had been after Uncle Iroh, not her, Katara had a pretty good idea of who that someone might be.

Looking back, Katara was surprised that she hadn’t figured it out earlier. Panuk’s ship was destroyed by a rock formation that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Ozai’s assassin broke into and escaped a prison made out of solid volcanic rock without a trace. Even Zuko’s poisoned wine had been traced back to Ba Sing Se. And there was only one explanation for these clues combined with the now obvious fact that someone wanted Azula to sit on the Fire Nation throne. 

The Dai Li, who no one had heard from in over five years, ever since Azula banished them on the eve of her fateful Agni Kai, were back.

But just who were they working for? The Dai Li didn’t strike Katara as an organization that worked on its own. They needed a strong leader to tell them what to do, someone like Long Feng or Azula. But while it seemed unlikely that Azula had been able to plan a coup in her present mental state from the confines of her hospital room, Long Feng had been assumed dead for years, killed in the siege of Ba Sing Se in the final days of the war. So who was it?

Before she could really ponder it though, there was a small crash and the sound of raised voices just beyond the opening in the stone wall on the other side of the room.

“—not part of the original plan,” she was just able to make out. “—will be much harder to explain to the council members…”

But before she could hear more, Azula let out another groan, and there was a frantic shushing sound.

“Silence!” she heard a cold male voice say. “They are awake.”

Katara had just enough time to collect herself before a tall, familiar man stepped into the room. He wore dark green robes and was balding, but with a long black mustache and goatee. Two men with green eyes and dark-colored tunics stood on either side of him. 

Long Feng’s cold green eyes bored into her own, and he smiled at her unpleasantly. 

“Welcome Katara,” he said. “So nice of you to join us.”

Katara could only stare at him in shock. “You’re supposed to be dead,” she finally managed to sputter out.

Long Feng chuckled. “Supposed to be,” he said, “but not quite.”

He walked over to stand in front of Azula. She seemed only partly conscious of what was going on around her and was staring into space, muttering to herself. Long Feng tutted softly.

“So this is what has become of the mighty Princess Azula,” he said. “What a shame. I must say, I was not expecting you to bring her back with you, but no matter. I’m sure her brother will be pleased to see her.”

A chill ran down Katara’s spine. So they did have Zuko after all. “Where are we?” she demanded. “What is this place?”

Long Feng raised his eyebrows. “I’m surprised you don’t recognize it. Listen closely, and tell me if you hear something.”

He fell silent, and at first, the only sound Katara heard was her own heartbeat. Then suddenly, she heard a strange, faint sound, almost like a whisper, coming from the rocks behind her.

Long Feng chuckled at her startled expression. “You can see why the villagers of Himitsu have assumed this mountain was haunted. Luckily for us, there are no actual evil spirits, just the wind rushing through the tunnels carved out by an ancient river, now hundreds of feet below us.”

 _Himitsu…_ Katara thought. So the suspicious-looking man with green eyes from the tavern had recognized them after all. Just another warning sign which should have been so obvious, but that they ignored in their single-minded quest to find Zuko’s mother. As Katara had predicted, the whole ordeal had been one big trap, and they had walked straight into it without a second thought.

“Where is Zuko?” she asked Long Feng, suddenly scared for his safety. Who knew what Long Feng and the Dai Li were planning on doing with him?

“I suppose I can’t delay this touching family reunion any longer,” Long Feng said. He snapped his fingers, and the two Dai Li agents left the room. They returned shortly leading a battered-looking Zuko, his hands bound together and a gag over his mouth. He locked eyes with Katara, and a million different emotions passed between them. In the end, though, it seemed like he was only trying to tell her one thing: _I’m sorry._

Zuko’s appearance seemed to rouse Azula, and she seemed shocked to see her brother in such a state. 

“Zuzu…” she whispered, looking almost confused.

“Some of my agents caught him leaving herbs on the doorstep of the Himitsu tavern,” Long Feng explained. "At first, he put up a fight, but once they told him we had his sister and his Water Tribe friend, well, he came quite willingly after that.”

Zuko closed his eyes, looking pained.

Katara’s heart sank. Now that Zuko was captured, the only person who might notice that they were missing would be Ursa, and, as a non-bender, she would be no match for Long Feng and the Dai Li, even if she did manage to figure out where they were being held. They were totally on their own.

“So the assassination attempts on the full moon were just a part of your larger plan,” Katara said to Long Feng. Maybe if she could get him talking long enough, that would give her and Zuko enough time to figure out how to escape. “You planted that particular assassin so he would tell Zuko that his mother was still alive. And you murdered Panuk to ensure I was in the Fire Nation at the right time to be able to catch him.”

“Indeed,” Long Feng said. “Once I heard the assassin’s background, the rest of the plan just fell into place. I knew that a desperate search for his mother, even if it did turn out to be for nothing, would be the only thing that would tempt the Fire Lord away from the safety of his palace guards.”

Katara and Zuko exchanged a look. The search hadn’t been for nothing after all, but Long Feng didn’t need to know that, and at this point, she doubted that he even cared.

“I must apologize for your tribesman though,” Long Feng continued. “As you said, we had to ensure that you were in the Fire Nation for the events of the full moon, and he was simply collateral damage.”

Katara shuddered, picturing the Dai Li looking on with satisfaction as Panuk’s ship crashed into an unexpected rock formation, dooming the ambassador to a cold death at the bottom of the sea.

“You’ll pay for that,” she muttered.

Long Feng shrugged. “Perhaps,” he said, looking utterly unconcerned. “But it had to be done.”

“What I don’t understand,” Katara said, trying to get him to keep talking, “is why. Why does a former Grand Secretariat to the Earth King care about who sits on the Fire Nation throne?”

Long Feng paused. He turned to the two Dai Li agents, both of whom were looking at him warily, and motioned for them to secure Zuko to the wall opposite to Katara. 

“Leave us,” he told them once they had finished.

The Dai Li agents hesitated. “But sir…” one of them started to say.

“NOW,” Long Feng snarled, and the agents quickly did as they were told.

Long Feng sighed. “It took a lot of promises on my part to gain back their loyalty,” he explained. “That, and some light, er, convincing.”

Katara shuddered to think of just what he meant by “convincing”. “What do you mean?” she asked him.

“After the war,” Long Feng explained, “I was assumed dead, and the Dai Li exiled. No one in the Earth Kingdom was willing to trust either of us ever again. But I knew that the Dai Li were still loyal to Princess Azula. She was the only person they had ever betrayed me for, after all. And as much as I personally don’t care for the princess,“ Azula glared at him, now fully conscious and listening to his story. “I knew that helping her and the Dai Li was my one chance to stop living in exile and regain something of my former power and influence.

I created a new organization with as many Dai Li members as I could find to join my cause. The plan would end up being a several year-long effort, so we had to be as covert as possible. I hired assassins to train them and put spies in several different cities throughout the Fire Nation, including the capital, all operating under a new name: Long Xi Shou.”

“The Hand of the Dragon,” Katara gasped.

Long Feng nodded. “Indeed,” he said, and lifted his right sleeve to reveal a patch stitched with golden thread, identical to the one taken off the body of the assassin who tried to kill, not Azula, apparently, but Iroh. "My name does mean ‘Dragon Phoenix’ after all. It only seemed appropriate.”

“So why go to all this trouble?” Katara asked. “Why kill Ozai and Iroh too, and not just Zuko? His throne already goes to Azula after his death.”

Long Feng smirked. “I rather think you should be thanking me for getting rid of the pest Ozai,” he said. “But no matter. I wanted to make sure that there would be no one else to contradict Azula's claim. Iroh would have certainly seen through my ruse, so I had to get rid of him.”

“But you didn’t,” Katara said. Across from her, Zuko made a warning sound from behind his gag, but she ignored him. “Iroh is still alive. Despite your best efforts.”

Long Feng’s face morphed into an expression of genuine surprise, but he quickly hid it underneath a disapproving sneer. Katara knew she probably shouldn’t have told him, but she couldn’t resist the chance to get under his skin, even if just for a moment.

“So be it,” he said. “We will just take care of that little problem once we fly back to the capital. In any case—" he smiled over at Azula, who was now glaring daggers at him, though still staying chillingly silent. “—your unexpected presence, my dear, will allow us to set this plan in motion that much sooner.”

“What plan?” Azula said coldly. 

Katara shuddered. The tone in her voice suggested that she was fully lucid and currently plotting Long Feng's demise. The only thing stopping her from roasting the earthbender to a crisp was her stone shackles.

But Long Feng only smiled at her. “You know, princess,” he said. “You taught me a hard lesson back in Ba Sing Se. You beat me at my own game. I had a lot of time to reflect on that, sitting in that cold, dark dungeon. But I learned. I got smarter. And once your dear brother is dead and you sit on the Fire Nation throne, you will do exactly what I tell you to do.”

Azula scoffed. “I’d like to see you try.”

Long Feng raised an eyebrow. “Really? As I’m sure you’ve heard, my powers of persuasion are quite convincing. And your…forgive me, rather _fragile_ mental state will make it that much easier.”

“The Dai Li will never allow it,” Katara cut in. “They’re loyal to Azula now. They only tolerate you to get them what they want. They won’t stand by while you brainwash her!”

Long Feng laughed. “We’ll see about that. But enough talk. It is time. Jin!” he called, and the two Dai Li agents came back into the room, one of them carrying a large scroll of paper and an ink brush.

“Loosen the shackles on the Fire Lord’s right hand and give him the brush,” Long Feng instructed. “If you try to escape,” he warned Zuko, “I should warn you, the consequences will be dire.”

Zuko’s eyes met Katara’s for a brief second, then flitted away. The stone shackles dissolved off his right hand, and the ink brush was thrust into his palm. He reached up and pulled his gag down from his mouth and glared at Long Feng.

“Whatever it is you want me to do,” he growled. “I won’t do it.”

Long Feng chuckled. “I really don’t think you have a choice. I don’t need much. Just your official seal.”

Zuko quickly scanned the letter held out by the Dai Li agent. “You want me to make you official council and Acting Regent to Azula?” he asked. “What good will that do if I’m still Fire Lord?”

“You misunderstood me,” Long Feng said. “You will only be Fire Lord for the next ten minutes. Did you really think I would let you walk out of this mountain alive? I could have killed you on the night of the full moon, yes, but this gives me a much easier way to climb the ranks of the Fire Nation court.”

Katara felt like she was going to pass out. She had to stop Long Feng somehow, but how? Zuko was going to die, and she could only stand there, trapped to the opposite wall, completely helpless to stop it.

“It will make for quite a touching story,” Long Feng continued. 

‘Poor Fire Lord Zuko had a tragic accident while hopelessly searching the jungle for his dead mother. He was rescued by Long Feng, in exile and now repentant of his old ways. But alas, it was too late to save him, and with his last dying breath, the young Fire Lord made Long Feng the official council and Acting Regent to Azula, his unstable sister and heir, as a thank you.”

He walked over to Azula; and, after studying her for a moment, stroked a single finger softly down her left cheek. “And who knows? Perhaps someday, he will become even more.”

Azula spat at him directly in his face. “That will never happen,” she sneered.

Long Feng scowled and wiped his face angrily. He seemed to have suddenly lost his cool temper. 

“Sign the paper,” he snapped at Zuko. “Do it!”

“No!” Zuko yelled. “You’ve already decided to kill me, I won’t give you the satisfaction of destroying my nation too!”

Long Feng growled in frustration and made a sudden swiping motion with his left hand. A stone hand erupted out of the rock on the opposite side of the room and flew towards Katara. It slammed against her throat, grabbing it roughly and started to squeeze.

“Sign the paper,” Long Feng continued in a now frighteningly calm voice. “or she dies. Your sister, unfortunately, is necessary for my plan to succeed. But your charming Water Tribe friend is much more disposable.”

Katara locked eyes with Zuko. His face had gone deathly pale, and he was shaking. The stone hand around her neck squeezed even tighter, and she gasped hopelessly for air.

“Decide quickly,” Long Feng said. “She won’t last much longer.”

Tears were streaming down Katara’s face. She stared into Zuko’s eyes and, with incredible effort, gave the tiniest shake of her head. 

_Don’t do it_ , she told him silently. _I’m not worth it._

He closed his eyes, and after a tense second that felt like it lasted for several years, signed his name to the paper. After his death, Long Feng would officially have control of the Fire Nation government.

Immediately, the pressure around Katara’s neck lessened. She doubled over and coughed violently. She was shaking, the shackles being the only thing that kept her from slipping onto the ground, though whether it was from the pain or shock, she hardly knew.

 _Zuko…_ she thought. _How could you?_

Azula was watching them closely, her eyes wide as she glanced between her brother and Katara.

“See?” Long Feng said. “That wasn’t so hard. Now, Fire Lord Zuko, it is finally time to pass the throne on to your sister. Any last words?”

He raised his hand. Katara’s tears were blurring her vision, and she threw herself against her shackles desperately. But before Long Feng could do anything, a single, frantic word cut through the darkness.

“No!” Azula cried.

Long Feng hesitated. “No?” he said calmly, turning back to Azula. “I thought you wanted to take your brother’s throne. This is the way to do it.”

“You really thought you could murder my brother right in front of me and still expect me to cooperate with you?” Azula snarled. “You really thought you could drug me, _hypnotize_ me, all so you could run the Fire Nation yourself from the shadows?” She laughed coldly. “I told you that you don’t have the right to rule, remember? You will never be anything more than a lowly Earth Kingdom peasant.”

Long Feng scowled. He seemed to have forgotten all about Zuko for the moment. “You won’t cooperate?” he yelled. “Fine! Then we’ll do this here and now!” 

He strode over to Azula and grabbed her roughly by the chin, forcing her to look into his eyes.

 _“The Hand of the Dragon has invited you to Fire Fountain City….The Hand of the Dragon has invited you to Fire Fountain City…”_  
  
Katara shuddered, realizing that he was chanting a mantra, attempting to subdue Azula by hypnotizing her.

The Dai Li agents had been glancing at each other nervously for the last several minutes, but it seemed that they had finally reached their breaking point.

“Stop it!” one of them yelled. “What do you think you’re doing?

Long Feng ignored him. Azula was thrashing around in her shackles, screaming and trying to bite his fingers.

“Stupid peasant!” she screamed. “You will never rule the Fire Nation! You don’t have the right!”

“Quit struggling!” Long Feng bellowed. “Submit, you Fire Nation BITCH!”

But he never got to finish his mantra, because at that moment, a slab of rock hit Long Feng on the side of his head. He released Azula, stunned, and turned to see the two Dai Li agents facing him, their hands in offensives stances, ready to strike again.

“What,” he growled. “Is the meaning of this?”

“We did not sign up to be jail wardens while you play Fire Lord from the shadows!” one of the agents snapped. “We won’t sit by while you put the Princess Azula under your evil spell.”

Long Feng sneered. “I’m afraid you’ll have to,” he said darkly, and a stone slab shot up from the floor and hurled towards the agents. They dived out of the way, and the slab exploded against the far wall with a loud crash.

Two more Dai Li agents, who were apparently standing guard outside, rushed into the room. “Release the princess!” one of the other agents called, and the agent closest to Azula placed his hands on her shackles, which dissolved into dust between his fingers.

Azula straightened up, her eyes alert. Long Feng was distracted, now fighting three agents by himself. Dust was flying all around them. It would have been so easy for her to run off in the commotion and leave Katara and Zuko behind.

“Azula…” Zuko muttered, his voice pleading.

Azula hesitated, and for a just moment, Katara thought they were doomed. But then she turned to the Dai Li agent and snapped, “Release my brother and the Water Tribe girl too. Quickly!”

The Dai Li agent did as he was told, and Katara felt a sigh of relief go through her. But they couldn’t celebrate for long. As soon as she and Zuko were free of their shackles, Long Feng yelled a phrase that made all the Dai Li agents stop in their tracks.

_“THE DRAGON PHOENIX WILL RISE AGAIN.”_

A blank look came over the Dai Li agents' faces and Katara realized just what the “convincing” Long Feng had mentioned earlier meant. Somehow, he had hypnotized all of them one by one, most likely as a fail-safe in the off-chance that they would betray him again. In an instant, the agents turned their attention from Long Feng and started attacking each other.

Katara was rooted to the spot, horrified, but Long Feng was quickly making his way across the room to them, a murderous look in his eyes.

“Come on!” Zuko cried, pulling her arm. "We have to go, NOW."

They ran into the darkness, trusting that Zuko remembered the way through the winding black tunnels and that somehow, they would be able to make their way back to the surface.

Long Feng thundered after them, sending boulder after boulder hurtling towards their heads. Zuko and Azula shot fireballs back at him as they ran, but Katara felt helpless. Her waterskin had been completely emptied, and the closest source of water had to be miles away.

The rocks all around them were shaking as they paused in an empty cavern to catch their breath and find their bearings. Katara yelped as she just narrowly avoided being gutted by a falling stalactite. 

“He’s going to bring down the entire mountain if he’s not careful!” she yelled. There was no chance they would all be able to make it to the surface alive if Long Feng was able to keep this up.

At that moment, Azula seemed to come to a decision. 

“You two go on,” she yelled. “It’s me he’s after at this point, I can distract him to give you time to find your way to the surface.”

“What?” Katara cried. “Are you crazy?”

Zuko shook his head. “It’s too dangerous! What if he collapses the tunnels and you’re not able to get out?”

Azula glared at him. “We don’t have another choice! And besides….” she swallowed hard and glanced towards the tunnel behind her, which was shaking as Long Feng steadily got closer. “Uncle always said, 'sometimes you have to sacrifice one of your own pieces in order to win the game'.”

“No…” Zuko whispered, but Azula had already strode over to the entrance of the tunnel and planted herself there defiantly. Stalactites and rocks shook and crumbled all around her, but she refused to budge. Her arms were encased in blazing fireballs, and sparks shot out even from the very tips of her hair. Her entire being seemed to crackle with electricity and adrenaline. She was beautiful and utterly terrifying.

“Are you there, earth peasant?” she screamed. “Come out and face me, if you’re not a komodo-chicken!”

Zuko seemed unable to move, staring at his sister with a mixture of abject horror and awe. This time, it was Katara’s turn to pull his arm and urge him to keep moving forward. 

They had just reached the tunnel on the other side of the cavern when there was a loud crash and a blinding flash of light. Long Feng had finally reached Azula, but Katara knew that they couldn’t stop, or her sacrifice would be for nothing.

They raced through the maze of black obsidian. The tunnels were shaking so violently it made Katara’s teeth chatter, and twice she and Zuko were almost flattened by falling rocks. But finally, they saw a faint speck of daylight in the distance and ran towards it, finally emerging panting and exhausted on the side of a green hillside. 

They turned back to the tunnel and could only stand there squinting into the darkness as the flashes of light from Azula’s fire steadily grew closer and closer.

“Come on, Azula…” Zuko muttered. 

Finally, they saw her racing towards the surface, covered in dust but otherwise relatively unhurt. The tunnel was quickly collapsing, rocks and boulders falling all around her, but somehow, she managed to dodge them all. She was fifty feet away from the entrance, then thirty, then twenty, and Katara thought that she just might be able to escape. 

But then, all of a sudden, the mountain let out a deep ear-splitting groan like a giant awakening from its slumber. The rocks started to crumble in on themselves, and Azula looked up in alarm, her hands quickly going up to protect her head. But it was too late. Within seconds, the tunnel collapsed, and Katara and Zuko could only watch in horror as Azula was buried under hundreds of tons of black stone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know, another cliffhanger. Please don't hate me!
> 
> I hope that you've all enjoyed seeing the mystery of the assassinations and Panuk's death finally unravel this chapter. Long Feng is my favorite villain from the series, and I think he deserved a much cooler ending than the one he got in the show. So hopefully my explanation of what *could* have happened to him and his return makes sense!
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me for so long, I really appreciate all your lovely comments and I promise I won't leave you hanging for too long!!


	10. Chapter 10

" _AZULA!_ " Zuko screamed, frozen to the spot in horror as the tunnel collapsed over his sister.

But the mountain wasn’t done yet. Stray boulders flew down the hillside and crashed through the jungle on either side of them, and it took everything Katara had to drag Zuko away from the tunnel and make him duck behind a large, wide tree for protection.

When the dust finally settled, Katara finally looked up. Zuko was clinging to her, and she felt him shaking as she gently pried his fingers off her arm and helped him get back on his feet.

“C’mon,” she muttered and led him back over to the mouth of the tunnel, though she hardly knew what she expected to find. There was no way Azula could have survived that avalanche of rocks.

Zuko obviously felt differently.

"Stand back," he ordered her, and she watched as he blasted fireball after fireball at the pile of rocks, desperately trying to shift them. But it was no use. No one but an earthbender could move that much stone at once. Unfortunately, all the earthbenders within a hundred-mile radius were now lying dead underneath the mountain.

Realizing his efforts were useless, Zuko sank to the ground, his head in his hands. Katara’s heart ached as she watched him. He had gone through so much in such a short period of time. In just this past week, he had finally found his long-lost mother, realized that she was dying, and been kidnapped and almost killed himself. And now it seemed as if he had lost his sister as well. As he told Katara back at the Fire Nation palace, no matter what happened between them in the past, Azula was still his family. But being a part of Zuko’s family brought nothing but tragedy.

Katara picked a small rock off the ground and held it in her hand, frowning at it. There had to be some way to move the pile of rocks, even if just so they could bring Azula's body back to Ursa. But how? Zuko was a master firebender, but even he was not nearly powerful enough to melt stone. That was something only the Avatar could do, and Katara had never wished for Aang more than at that moment.

But if fire couldn't move rocks, could water? She had seen something similar happen before, when she and Aang had used underground geysers to (unknowingly) destroy a dam near the Earth Kingdom village of Gaipan. Hypothetically, the build-up of pressure of hundreds of gallons of water should be able to move the rocks, but where was she supposed to find that much water? There were no underground geysers like there were in Gaipan, and the closest large body of water was the Jang Hui River, several miles away from where they stood now. Even if she could move that much water that far, it would be no use. In order to blast the rocks away from Azula, the water would need to come from below her.

 _Below…._ Katara thought. And then, something that Long Feng had said earlier came suddenly back to her. He had described how the black mountain they were being kept under was not haunted, as the villagers of Himitsu thought, but that the sounds of “evil spirits” were really just the wind whistling through the tunnels... that were carved out by an underground river!

It would take nearly all of her strength, Katara realized. The river was likely hundreds of feet below them at this point, and it may not even work in the end. But as she glanced at Zuko's broken face, too much in shock and disbelief to even cry as he stared at the rocks, she knew that she had to try.

She put a hand on his shoulder. “Zuko,” she murmured. “I have an idea.”

She explained her plan to him, and his eyes went wide with the same sort of desperate hope she saw when he had asked her to heal Ursa. 

“Do you really think it will work?” he asked her.

Katara swallowed nervously. “Only one way to find out.”

She walked right up to the edge of the pile of rocks and placed her hand on the ground. She reached out with her bending, and for a second, she could only feel the tiny droplets of water in the grass and plants on the hillside, in the humid air all around them. But she focused her efforts lower, deep into the ground, and for a long time, she felt nothing. But then, so faint that she almost missed it, she felt it. The familiar push and pull of water deep within her gut. The water was there, but so far beneath the surface of the mountain that the distance staggered her. Would she really be able to do this? She pushed that thought out of her mind as soon as it entered. She couldn’t falter, couldn’t question herself. Not now, not with the way that Zuko was watching her so closely like she held his entire life and happiness in her hands.

“You better stand back,” she told him. “I’ll be able to control the flow of the water once it reaches the surface, but there’s no telling where the rocks will end up once I’ve blasted them away.”

He nodded and did as she told him, retreating behind a large boulder about fifty feet away from the tunnel's entrance.

Katara took a deep breath to steady herself and began to draw the water up towards the surface. She went slowly at first, trying to pace herself, and little by little the water started to rise higher, filling in every crack and crevice between the rocks. Katara was inexplicably reminded of their trip to the Fire Nation capital prison, how tiny tendrils of water moved within the cracks of the volcanic mountain, like veins within a person's arm. Now, all she needed to do was fill those cracks with water until they burst.

As she brought more and more water up towards the surface, the pressure began to build, and the rocks almost started to vibrate from all the restrained energy. Finally, Katara felt like she had enough to try and blast the rocks away.

“Get ready!” she yelled to Zuko. She held her hands out, palms up, and raised them up over her head in one forceful, swiping motion.

The sound was like an explosion, and an enormous torrent of water erupted from the pile of rocks that blocked the tunnel. Katara tried to direct the water away from Zuko, but she had to run and duck herself as the water blasted the rocks up and out in every direction, eventually coming to crash down in a giant wave on the hillside around them.

“Are you alright?” Katara yelled to Zuko. 

She was soaked to the bone, and her legs were shaking. She knew that what she just did would take up a lot of her energy, but she wasn’t prepared for just how much. She suddenly felt light-headed and had to lean against a nearby tree for support.

“I’m fine,” Zuko said, suddenly appearing beside her. "Are you alright?"

She nodded shakily. She bent the water from her clothes into her waterskin, then followed Zuko in a slight daze as he hurried back over to Azula.

The princess was lying in a small crater of rocks, her eyes closed. A large cut over her eye bled profusely, and both her arms looked like they were severely broken.

Zuko rushed towards her and immediately put his fingers to the side of her neck, searching for a pulse. After a few seconds, he sat back with a sort of breathless, disbelieving laugh.

“She’s alive!” he told her, and Katara felt a wave of relief go through her.

“But badly injured,” she pointed out. “Let me at least fix her up a bit before we take her back to your mother.”

Zuko nodded and moved aside to let her work. Katara used the water from her waterskin to heal the cut over her eye and her broken arms before Zuko put a hand on her shoulder.

“That’s enough,” he said quietly but firmly. “You’ve healed the worst of her injuries, and I don’t want you tiring yourself out even more. We’ve got a long walk back to my mother’s house, and she can take care of the rest.”

Katara wanted to protest, but she knew he was right. They still had a several hours long walk through the jungle to endure, and she didn’t want Zuko to have to end up carrying her _and_ Azula.

“Okay,” she muttered, and he looked relieved.

Katara staggered to her feet, and Zuko gently picked up Azula and put her over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing more than a sack of flour. 

“You ready?” he asked Katara, and she nodded, already fighting down her growing feelings of dizziness and nausea.

“Lean on me if you need support,” Zuko told her, and with that, they set off into the jungle, desperate to pull themselves away from the horrors that the dark mountain had brought to light.

Later, Katara didn’t know how they all managed to make their way back to Ursa’s house in one piece. She stumbled through the jungle on weak, shaky legs, her head spinning all the while. Zuko didn’t look too much better himself, and though he occasionally shot a worried glance in Katara's direction, he was mostly concerned with carrying his still-unconscious sister.

Finally, though, they reached the clearing with Ursa’s cottage right as the afternoon light was beginning to fade. Ursa was pacing outside her front door, wringing her hands nervously, and let out a gasp when she finally saw the battered trio stumbling through her flowerbeds.

“Zuko! Katara!” she cried. “Thank the spirits you’re alright!” Her eyes widened as they fell on Azula. “Is that…”

“Azula,” Zuko said quickly. “She's badly hurt. Can you help her?”

Ursa’s face hardened into a mask of concentration that Katara had seen many times before from other Water Tribe healers. “Of course,” she said firmly. “Put her in the spare room. I'll be right there.”

Katara trailed after them as Zuko carried Azula through the kitchen and laid her down on the bed in the spare bedroom. She gripped onto the doorframe for purchase as waves of nausea went through her, scared that if she let go, she would simply collapse onto the floor. Ursa had already sprung into action, grabbing bandages, bundles of herbs, and various tonics and tinctures from around her kitchen.

“I was so worried when you didn’t come back from the village yesterday,” Ursa explained to Zuko as she did this. “But I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know if you had run into trouble or if you had simply met back up with Katara and your sister. And then…” she swallowed. “…and then I saw a cloud of dust go up from that cursed mountain, and I didn’t know what to think—”

“It’s okay. We’re fine,” Zuko said, though Katara noticed he had a somewhat hard edge to his voice. 

Ursa knelt down by Azula’s bedside. She felt her ribs carefully and peeked under an eyelid, finally sitting back on her heels with a relieved sigh.

“She’ll live,” she told Katara and Zuko. “Her ribs are badly bruised, and she appears to be in shock, which is why she’s still in this unconscious state, but the worst of her superficial injuries appear to be healing.”

“You can thank Katara for that,” Zuko said quietly. 

Now that the worst appeared to be over, the lines on his face softened a bit, the tension slowly starting to leave his hands and shoulders. Katara managed a small smile, but the room had started to go blurry, and she didn't know if she would be able to speak.

Ursa raised her eyebrows. “Katara, you should go rest,” she said firmly, but a gentle note of gratitude in her voice. “I’ll take it from here.”

“No, really, I’m fine—" Katara started to say, but her treacherous legs betrayed her, and she felt them buckle. And then everything around her went dark.

When she opened her eyes again, it was dark outside and Zuko was staring down at her with a curious expression on his face. She was lying in bed in an unfamiliar room, lit only by the soft, warm glow of a few candles on the wooden dresser opposite to her.

Zuko was sitting in a chair next to her bedside, and he smiled at her once he realized she was awake. 

“Hi,” he said softly. “You’re up.”

Katara could only nod dumbly. Her head hurt, and her throat felt as dry as sandpaper. Zuko handed her a glass of water, and she drank it gratefully and handed the glass back to him with a shaking hand.

“What happened?” she managed to croak out.

“You passed out,” Zuko murmured, brushing a piece of hair off her forehead. “Which, to be honest, after everything that happened, I’m amazed you didn’t do earlier.” 

His hand lingered on a stray curl by her cheek, and he swallowed. “What you did to that mountain, Katara…” he said in a low, quiet voice, “...that was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. You’re a true waterbending master. And you saved my sister. Thank you.”

She didn’t know if it was her exhaustion, his simple, heartfelt thanks, or the way the backs of his fingers were stroking softly against her cheek, but his words brought tears to her eyes.

“Hey…hey, it’s okay,” Zuko said, confusing her reaction for distress. His free hand took one of hers and intertwined their fingers. “You’re okay. Azula’s okay. I’m okay. We’re all gonna be just fine.”

Katara nodded her head and sniffed loudly. This was the second time in less than a week that she had cried in front of Zuko, but somehow, he didn’t seem to mind. The candlelight brought out tiny flecks of gold in his amber eyes, she realized dazedly, as his fingers weaved their way gently through her long curls.

“Go back to sleep,” he whispered. “Mom says you can sleep here for as long as you’d like, and I’ll be right next door if you need me.”

Katara badly wanted to ask him to stay with her, but she didn't know if he would be willing to, or even if she had the right to ask. The lull of his voice and the steady, tender sweep of his thumb over her jaw was already starting to make her eyes heavy again, so she only nodded shakily and closed her eyes.

The last thing she felt, right before she drifted off into unconsciousness, was the gentle brush of his fingertips over her lips.

The next few days were tense, for various reasons. Azula was still unconscious, though thankfully she appeared to be recovering fairly quickly from her wounds. Katara assisted whenever she could, but her knowledge of healing was still relatively limited, so she left most of the complicated internal injuries to Ursa’s care. 

The long hours and additional stress seemed to put a strain on Ursa, and she appeared to be finally starting to feel the effects of the assassin’s poison. Katara had only been away a few days to travel to the capital city and get Azula, but already she was shocked by the difference in Ursa’s appearance.

Her skin, already so fair and delicate, was stretched tight over her face, and her cheeks took on an almost sunken quality, only exaggerated by her high regal cheekbones. Simple tasks like cooking dinner or weeding the garden seemed to tire her, and the seizures she had mentioned when she first revealed her condition were occurring more and more frequently. At least, that was what Katara overheard her tell Zuko in hushed tones in the kitchen one day.

It was clear that Zuko still had reservations about his mother, but he seemed committed to helping her with Azula in whatever ways he could. Slowly, bit by bit, he started to let her back into his life, helping her weed the garden, delivering her herbs to the village, even sitting with her to drink tea and watch the sunrise.

On the other hand, it almost seemed like he was avoiding Katara, which confused her. He had been so gentle, so tender with her on the night she collapsed that she almost thought she had imagined it, especially since now he could barely look her in the eye. Katara wanted to be helpful, and when she wasn’t helping Ursa with Azula or cooking, she offered to accompany Zuko down to the village or even just to sit and have tea with him, but he always shrugged off her offer and made some excuse. In fact, the only time he sought her out after that night was just to tell her that he had sent a letter to Iroh explaining their situation and warning him to watch out for stray Dai Li (or ‘Hand of the Dragon’) agents in the capital city.

As a result, Katara spent a lot of time wandering the jungle, lost in thought and trying to sort out her turbulent emotions. It hurt that Zuko seemed to be avoiding her. She wanted to be there for him, and she thought that they understood each other at this point. There was an unspoken agreement (at least on her end) that she would stay with him in Himitsu as long as he wanted to, and now that Azula was injured and Ursa seemed to be fading, he seemed even more reluctant to leave their sides. 

More than that though, she wanted to talk with him about what happened with Long Feng in the black mountain. He had signed away the future of the Fire Nation with a stroke of a pen so he wouldn’t have to watch her die. And if not for Azula, it was very likely that both of them would have died anyway, and Long Feng would have been able to take full control of the Fire Nation government.

She was grateful, of course, that he hadn’t just let her die, but something about the action disturbed her nonetheless. It reminded her of when she started to bloodbend the assassin on the full moon, simply out of revenge for what he did to Zuko. The lengths that they were willing to go to for each other scared her. And somehow, this realization combined with the fact that Zuko didn’t want to talk to her made it even worse.

Finally, one afternoon she found Zuko out in the garden, weeding the bed of fire lilies. Ursa was inside the house, changing Azula’s bandages, and Katara knew this might be her one chance to talk to him before he could slip away.

He looked up and frowned slightly as she approached, his eyes darting towards the house as if silently begging his mother to come out and interrupt them.

“We need to talk,” Katara said firmly.

His lips pressed together into a thin line. “What about?” he said stiffly.

Katara crossed her arms. “Don’t play dumb, Zuko. We both know you’ve been avoiding me.”

She held up her hand as Zuko opened his mouth to refute it. “And don’t try to say you haven’t been, it’s painfully obvious, even to your mother. She even asked if we had gotten in a fight the other day!”

Zuko only shut his mouth and glared at her silently, refusing to say anything. Katara sighed. Why was he so damn stubborn?

“Fine,” she snapped. “If you don’t want to talk about that, maybe you can tell me about that little stunt you pulled underneath the black mountain. You know, when you signed away the Fire Nation throne because you were too much of a coward to watch me die. Even though we were probably both dead within the next few minutes anyway!"

It was cruel, but it did manage to rile Zuko enough to respond. “You don’t know that!” he yelled, scrambling to his feet. “I was trying to save your life!”

“At the expense of your country?” Katara shot back. “My life isn’t worth that much, Zuko, and you know it!” She took a deep breath. “You know he probably would have killed both of us anyway if it weren’t for Azula. Why doom the fate of the entire Fire Nation as well?”

Zuko seemed to be struggling with himself. He gripped his hair and tilted his head back, glaring at the afternoon sky as it had personally done him wrong.

“I knew you shouldn’t have come on this trip,” he muttered, so quietly that Katara almost didn’t catch it. 

But she did. His words affected her more than she thought they would, and she felt a pang of hurt and anger go through her.

“What?” she sputtered. “How— how could you say that?”

Zuko turned his head to glare at her. “Because it’s true!” he said. “None of this would have happened if you had just stayed back at the palace like I wanted you to in the first place!”

And Katara snapped. She marched up to him and got directly in his face, glaring at him with such intensity that anyone else would have positively cowered under her gaze.

“If I had just 'stayed back at the palace’, Zuko,” she said with a voice as cold as ice, “you would be _dead_. Azula would still be in her prison cell, your mother would be spending the last of her remaining days alone, and Long Feng would be the de facto ruler of your beloved Fire Nation.”

They glared at each other for a long time, each one of them too furious to speak. Then suddenly, Zuko dropped his gaze and turned away from her, his hands curling themselves into fists at his sides.

“I know,” he said quietly, his eyes on the treeline at the other side of the clearing. “I’m sorry.”

Katara was so surprised that she could only stand there, speechless. He turned back to her, and his eyes were filled with shame, regret, and something else that tugged at her chest and made her heart flutter in spite of itself.

“I shouldn’t have said it,” he told her quietly, “and I truly am thankful for all that you’ve done for me these past few weeks, Katara, but…” he paused and took a deep, shuddering breath. “What happened under that mountain was the very reason why I didn’t want you to come on this trip in the first place.”

“What do you mean?” Katara asked, confused.

“I mean,” Zuko said slowly, “the reason I didn’t want you coming with me was because I knew there was a strong possibility of it being a trap, and if it was, I didn’t want anyone to use you against me.”

“Use me against you?” Katara breathed, hardly believing what he was saying. “I don’t understand. How would they use me against you?”

Zuko gave her a small, sad smile. “Not you specifically. But how...how I feel about you. And it worked. As you said, I was willing to give up the entire fate of my country just so I didn’t have to watch you die.”

Katara’s head was spinning, the earth unstable beneath her feet. Her heart was beating so hard she thought it might jump out of her chest. But somehow, by some miracle, she managed to steady herself and look right up into his amber eyes. It was as if some other force had temporarily possessed her body, and the words left her mouth before she even had a chance to think about them.

“And how do you feel about me, Zuko?”

For a moment, there was silence, nothing but the babble of the nearby stream and calls of frogs and insects, the early evening sounds of a Fire Nation summer.

Then Zuko opened his mouth, and Katara had the distinct feeling that something between them was about to change forever. 

But before he could say anything, there was a loud crash, and the front door to the cottage flew open. Ursa stood in the doorway and waved them over excitedly.

The moment was over, and Katara followed Zuko close behind as he jogged over to meet his mother.

“Is everything alright?” he asked, looking concerned.

Ursa nodded. “Yes, yes, everything’s fine, but come quickly, both of you!”

“What’s happened?” Katara asked, bewildered.

Ursa smiled. “It’s Azula,” she said. “She’s finally awake.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You really didn't think I would be so cruel to kill off Azula just when she did something decent for once, did you? ;)
> 
> Thank you so much for all of your comments and support!!


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